Amazon Deploys One Millionth Robot and Launches DeepFleet AI Model for Warehouse Optimization

Amazon deploys its one millionth robot, releases generative AI model | TechCrunch

After 13 years of deploying robots into its warehouses, Amazon reached a new milestone. The tech behemoth now has one million robots in its warehouses, the company announced Monday. This one millionth robot was recently delivered to an Amazon fulfillment facility in Japan. That figure puts Amazon on track to reach another landmark: its vast network of warehouses may soon have the same number of robots working as people, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ also reported that 75% of Amazon's global deliveries are now assisted in some way by a robot. TechCrunch reached out to Amazon for more information. The company also announced it's releasing a new generative AI model called DeepFleet for its warehouse robots. This AI model, which can coordinate the robots' routes within the company's warehouses more efficiently, will help increase the speed of its robotic fleet by 10%, according to Amazon. The company used Amazon Sagemaker -- the AWS cloud studio that helps build and deploy AI models -- to create DeepFleet. Amazon trained the model on its own warehouse and inventory data. Amazon's one-millionth robot represents more than just a number. The company has improved its fleet of robots in recent years, adding new capabilities and models. In May, the company unveiled its latest robot, Vulcan. This model has two arms, one designed for rearranging inventory, and another with a camera and suction cup to grab items. Most notably, these Vulcan robots have a sense of "touch" that allows it to feel the items it is grabbing, according to Amazon. In October 2024, the company announced its "next-generation fulfillment centers" which would include 10x as many robots as their current facilities, in addition to human workers. The first of these new robotic-powered centers opened shortly after in Shreveport, Louisiana, near the state's Texas border. Amazon originally started building up its robotic capabilities back in 2012 alongside its acquisition of Kiva Systems.

Amazon deploys its 1 millionth robot, releases generative AI model | TechCrunch

After 13 years of deploying robots into its warehouses, Amazon reached a new milestone. The tech behemoth now has 1 million robots in its warehouses, the company announced Monday. This one millionth robot was recently delivered to an Amazon fulfillment facility in Japan. That figure puts Amazon on track to reach another landmark: Its vast network of warehouses may soon have the same number of robots working as people, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal. The WSJ also reported that 75% of Amazon's global deliveries are now assisted in some way by a robot. TechCrunch reached out to Amazon for more information. The company also announced it's releasing a new generative AI model called DeepFleet for its warehouse robots. This AI model, which can coordinate the robots' routes within the company's warehouses more efficiently, will help increase the speed of its robotic fleet by 10%, according to Amazon. The company used Amazon SageMaker -- the AWS cloud studio that helps build and deploy AI models -- to create DeepFleet. Amazon trained the model on its own warehouse and inventory data. Amazon's one millionth robot represents more than just a number. The company has improved its fleet of robots in recent years, adding new capabilities and models. In May, the company unveiled its latest robot, Vulcan. This model has two arms, one designed for rearranging inventory and another with a camera and suction cup to grab items. Most notably, these Vulcan robots have a sense of "touch" that allows it to feel the items it is grabbing, according to Amazon. In October 2024, the company announced its "next-generation fulfillment centers," which would include 10x as many robots as their current facilities, in addition to human workers. The first of these new robotic-powered centers opened shortly after in Shreveport, Louisiana, near the Texas border. Amazon originally started building up its robotic capabilities back in 2012 alongside its acquisition of Kiva Systems.

Robot Uprising? Amazon Now Has 1 Million Robots in Its Warehouses

Amazon now has 1 million robots operating across its warehouses worldwide. The company began testing robots at its facilities in 2012, starting with a single type of robot that could move inventory. Now, its fleet has nine types of robots that can accomplish various tasks, from finding items in the warehouses to bringing them to human employees for packaging and delivering them at outbound docks. This brings Amazon's total number of robots closer to its total number of human workers. According to The Wall Street Journal, the e-commerce giant currently employs 1.56 million people, but robots help with nearly 75% of all global deliveries. The number of packages Amazon ships per employee each year has increased from 175 in 2015 to 3,870 in 2024. However, more robot-enabled efficiency could translate to fewer jobs for humans. Last year, the average number of employees per facility was around 670, the lowest for Amazon in the last 16 years, according to the Journal. With AI advancements, the number is only going to reduce in the coming years. "As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done. We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs," CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo to employees last month. On Monday, Amazon also announced a new generative AI model that will make its robots more efficient. Called DeepFleet, the AI model will coordinate the movement of robots and reduce their travel time by 10% "to deliver packages to customers faster and at lower costs," said Scott Dresser, VP of Amazon Robotics. Amazon is also rumored to be testing humanoid robots for doorstep delivery at a dedicated facility in San Francisco. These robots are expected to get on the back of a Rivian van and jump out to drop packages. The company's Prime Air drone service has also been making progress, recently adding the capability to deliver iPhones, Galaxy phones, AirPods, and more in less than 60 minutes in eligible areas.

Amazon just deployed its one-millionth robot in its warehouses, and they'll soon outnumber humans -- generative AI to help cut robot fleet travel time by 10%

A new generative AI model is helping boost travel efficiency Amazon has revealed that the company has just deployed its one millionth robot in its operations. The milestone droid was deployed to a fulfilment center in Japan. In a press release, the company also revealed it has a new generative AI foundation model that will help improve robot fleet travel efficiency by 10%, supporting faster delivery times and reducing costs for consumers. Crucially, WSJ reports that Amazon is now on the brink of having more robots in its warehouses than humans. Per the report, the majority of Amazon's 1.56 million employees are warehouse staff, but the biggest cohort of Amazon's "employees" could soon be its army of robots, which it uses to pick orders from shelves, move goods ready for packaging, sort items, and more. Amazon says its new generative AI foundation model, DeepFleet, will make its entire fleet of robots smarter and more efficient. It will be used to coordinate the movement of its robots across its fulfilment network to improve the travel time of the fleet by 10%. That might not sound like a lot, but that's a colossal saving when you consider the magnitude of Amazon's business. Ultimately, that should mean lower costs and faster delivery times for consumers. Amazon says DeepFleet is essentially an intelligent traffic management system for its robots, which move like cars across a congested city. The company has come a long way from its original warehouse robots. In 2012, a robot could move inventory shelves across the floor of a warehouse. Now, it has an entire fleet of different models. Specifically, Amazon highlighted the Hercules, which can move 1,250 pounds of inventory, and Pegasus, which uses a precision conveyor belt to handle individual packages. There's also Proteus, Amazon's first fully autonomous mobile robot, which can move around employees while moving heavy carts. While the burgeoning future of AI and robots might seem like a threat to jobs in some instances, Amazon says the opposite is true. The company claims it has helped upskill 700,000 employees to work with more advanced technologies, and that robot grunt work is freeing up its employees to earn more technical skills. Those 700,000 workers now earn more money in jobs that can include working with robotics, with completely new jobs being created. Amazon one day hopes to turn warehouse robots into assistants that can even respond to verbal commands from employees, and is also testing a humanoid robot with legs, arms, and a head.

Amazon deploys its 1 millionth robot in a sign of more job automation

An Amazon logistics center in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Dummerstorf, Germany, on Nov. 27, 2024. Amazon announced Monday its millionth worker robot, and said its entire fleet will be powered by a newly launched generative artificial intelligence model. The move comes at a time when more tech companies are cutting jobs and warning of automation. The million robot milestone -- which joins Amazon's global network of more than 300 facilities -- strengthens the company's position as the world's largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics, Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, said in a press release. Meanwhile, Dresser said that its new "DeepFleet" AI model will coordinate the movement of its robots within its fulfillment centers, reducing the travel time of the fleet by 10% and enabling faster and more cost-effective package deliveries. Amazon began deploying robots in its facilities in 2012 to move inventory shelves across warehouse floors, according to Dresser. Since then, their roles in factories have grown tremendously, ranging from those able to lift up to 1,250 pounds of inventory to fully autonomous robots that navigate factories with carts of customer orders.

Amazon hits 1 million warehouse robots, nearly matching its human workforce

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. A hot potato: Amazon has announced two milestones that not everyone will welcome: the company has just deployed its millionth robot in its warehouse operations, and it is introducing a new AI model that will make the whole fleet smarter and more efficient. It means that Amazon now has almost as many robotic workers as human ones. Amazon's millionth robot was recently deployed in one of its fulfillment centers in Japan, the company writes. As noted by The Wall Street Journal, this means it is on the verge of having the same number of robots as human workers at its facilities. Few firms have been going all-in on robots quite like Amazon. There were 350,000 of them in its warehouses in 2021, meaning it has increased their numbers at a pace of around 162,500 new machines every year since then. The robots have also become more advanced, evolving from the original Roomba-like bots of 2012 that would lift and carry shelving units to the introduction of humanoid machines in 2023. One of these, Digit, is a bipedal, 5-foot 9-inch, 143-pound robot from Agility Robotics that can walk forward, backward, and sideways, squat and bend, and move, grasp, and handle items using its hand-like clasps. One of the most advanced machines arrived in May. Called the Vulcan robot, the arm is the first to have a sense of touch, allowing it to safely pick and stow approximately 75% of the 1 million items at the Amazon fulfillment center where it has been deployed. Amazon is experimenting with humanoid robots in its other operations, creating a robotic workforce capable of handling the so-called "last mile" of deliveries. Amazon also announced that it is introducing the DeepFleet generative AI model that will coordinate the movement of robots across its entire network. Optimizing the robots' routes through warehouses will improve the fleet's travel time by 10%. Today, robots assist with around three out of every four Amazon deliveries worldwide. They are helping increase output, and have contributed to the lowest number of average employees (670) Amazon has per warehouse in 16 years. The number of packages Amazon moves per employee has also jumped, from about 175 in 2015 to about 3,870 today. It's estimated that packing its warehouses with robots could save Amazon up to $10 billion per year by 2030, but it leaves a big question over what will happen to the human workers who are worried about their future. Amazon likes to point out that it has upskilled more than 700,000 employees since 2019, with many training initiatives focused on advanced technologies. There will also be new human roles created as a result of the robots being introduced. However, some job losses seem inevitable. The threat isn't just in Amazon's warehouses. CEO Andy Jassy last month warned corporate workers that AI will replace some of them over the next few years.

Amazon tops 1 million robots: Here's what they do

Amazon has deployed its 1 millionth robot, a milestone that brings its robot workforce closer than ever to matching its human one. The company is also rolling out an AI system called DeepFleet, designed to optimize robot movement across fulfillment centers. Built with internal logistics data and AWS tools such as SageMaker, it functions like a traffic controller, improving travel efficiency by 10% and cutting delivery costs. Amazon employs about 1.5 million people globally, including about 1.2 million people in its warehouses, according to numbers from the company and publicly reported estimates. The company says the goal of automation is to make warehouse work safer and more efficient. It notes that robots have created new types of jobs in maintenance and technical operations. More than 700,000 employees have been trained for these roles since 2019, according to the company. The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon averaged about 670 employees per facility last year, the lowest level in at least 16 years. At the same time, the number of packages shipped per employee each year has climbed from 175 to nearly 3,870 over the past decade, reflecting productivity gains driven by automation. Amazon's robotics fleet includes a growing variety of machines, each built for specialized tasks. Among them: PREVIOUSLY: New robots are making Amazon's warehouses more efficient -- can they also make them safer?

Amazon Now Has 1 Million Robots Steadily Pushing Humans Out

As Amazon warehouse employees have unionized and fought for better wages and working conditions, they've also increasingly watched their coworkers on the line become robots. According to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, the e-commerce giant has officially deployed more than one million robots in warehouse facilities and fulfillment centers. By contrast, the company currently employs more than 1.56 million humans, the majority of whom work in the same facilities. Thus far, Amazon's robots have been more a part of the workflow rather than full-blown people replacersâ€"though a report last month indicated the company is starting to tool around with humanoid bots for things like deliveries. But the company is certainly cutting back on human labor all while it cranks up its "productivity." Per WSJ, Amazon is down to 670 people per facility, the lowest figure it's been in nearly two decades. Meanwhile, about 75% of deliveries are now reportedly touched at some point by bots, and the number of packages shipped per employee in a facility has increased from 175 in 2015 to 3,870. You'd think, in theory, that the embrace of robotics would make life better for employees, who should see the burden placed on them lessened as automation steps in to help with the heavy lifting. That has not exactly manifested in any of the data avaialble. A study conducted by the University of Illinois Chicago's Center for Urban Economic Development found that 41% of Amazon warehouse workers have suffered an injury on the job and nearly seven in 10 have taken unpaid time off to recover. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has also found that Amazon facilities regularly fail to keep workers safe and expose them to high-risk conditions. Rather than relieving warehouse workers of their stress, it seems the long-term plan is instead to simply relieve them of duty. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a letter to employees talking up the integration of AI and automation throughout the company's workforce and said the company will ultimately “need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today." Instead of improving the conditions and quality of work, it seems Amazon will simply remove people from them entirelyâ€"as well as from their payroll. In addition to the humanoid bots that the company is playing with, WSJ reported that Amazon is testing a number of different bots in its innovation labs, including integrating AI into the machines so they can do things like respond to voice commands. Who will still have a voice for them to listen to? To be determined.

Amazon now has a million robots on its floors - and they're now close to outnumbering human workers

New roles are being created and existing workers are being upskilled Amazon has revealed it now has nearly as many robots as humans in its workforce after deploying its millionth robot across its warehouses and operations, a WSJ report has claimed. Helping to pick, sort, package and transport goods, robots now assist with around three in four global deliveries, however the effects on the workforce might not be as bad as it first sounds, and plenty of human jobs remain. The company says it has gone from around 175 packages per employee to around 3,870 in the space of a decade, having seen considerable growth across its businesses. One of the areas robots have proven their worth is in smaller, same-day delivery facilities that have fewer employees, where they can increase output. Products typically move around 25% faster in heavily automated facilities compared with traditional warehouses, it's reported. Besides launching new robots (Amazon is the world's largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robots), the company also recently introduced DeepFleet, a foundation model built on AWS tools designed to coordinate robot movements. Already, Amazon says it has see robot fleet travel efficiency improve by 10% using the AI, reducing congestion in its warehouses. Among its current fleet are Hercules, which can lift up to 1,250lbs, Pegasus, which handles packages via a conveyor belt, and Proteus, Amazon's first fully autonomous robot operating alongside humans. However, at the same time, Amazon Robotics VP Scott Dresser boasted that more than 700,000 employees have been upskilled since 2019 through training in robotics, engineering and maintenance, suggesting that human roles at Amazon could be evolving rather than disappearing. Dresser also noted that new fulfillment centers, including Shreveport, LA, require 30% more technical roles to look after the tech. Looking ahead, Amazon plans to continue using AI and ML to create more intelligent and responsive robots. Dresser envisions them improving employee safety, creating new career opportunities and boosting customer satisfaction.

Amazon nows has 1 million robots across its warehouses

Amazon now has an army of one million robots sailing through its fulfillment centers, making it the world's largest operator of mobile robotics. The e-commerce giant, which has more than 300 facilities worldwide, recently added its one millionth robot in Japan, according to a Monday press release. Not only is Amazon growing its fleet of robots, but the company says it's also using AI to make its robots smarter. The company introduced a new generative AI model that coordinates robot traffic to improve fulfillment speed and efficiency. The technology, called DeepFleet, apparently reduces robot travel time by 10%. "DeepFleet coordinates our robots' movements to optimize how they navigate our fulfillment centers," Amazon's robotics lead Scott Dresser said in a prepared statement. "This means less congestion, more efficient paths, and faster processing of customer orders." Soon, robots could outnumber the amount of workers employed in its fulfillment centers. Nearly 75% of Amazon's global deliveries are assisted in some way by robotics, the Wall Street Journal reported. Adding more robots could help the company combat high employee turnover. The company is rapidly scaling its warehouse robotics while its worker turnover rate sits at twice the industry average, according to the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit advocacy group. Amazon has argued that its robotics and AI investments will create job opportunities. For example, while a new fulfillment center in Shreveport, Louisiana uses ten times as many robotics as other facilities, it also requires 30% more employees to fill reliability, maintenance, and engineering roles, the company said. However, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has made it clear that AI will replace some jobs. In June, the executive told employees in a memo that the company will need fewer employees in some roles and more in others. He echoed this stance on Monday in an interview with CNBC. "Like with every technical transformation, there will be fewer people doing some of the jobs that the technology actually starts to automate," Jassy said. "But there's going to be other jobs."

The robot takeover comes another step closer -- at Amazon

Amazon is close to having more robots operating inside its warehouses than humans after the e-commerce giant announced this week that it now has more than a million robots working at its facilities around the world. Over the years, Amazon has spent billions of dollars on the development and deployment of warehouse-based robots, which handle an array of tasks once performed by human workers. Recommended Videos An estimated 1.1 million humans work at Amazon warehouses globally, suggesting it won't be long before they're outnumbered by robots. "We've just deployed our one millionth robot, building on our position as the world's largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics," Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, said in a blog post this week. Dresser added that it's also introducing a new generative AI technology designed to make its fleet of robots smarter and more efficient. The announcement follows Amazon's unveiling in May of its new Vulcan robot, which looks like a game changer due to its ability to pick items and place them onto movable shelves. Vulcan, which is in the early stages of rollout, can operate for up to 20 hours a day, while its stowing speed is said to be a little quicker than the average human. Amazon has always said that its robots complement the warehouse-based human workforce, with the machines performing repetitive, physically demanding and potentially hazardous tasks. But many observers believe that the company is aiming to fully automate its warehouses, a viewpoint that gained momentum just recently when a report by Business Insider disclosed an internal document stating that robots like the new Vulcan machine are "critical to flattening Amazon's hiring curve over the next ten years." The company has already admitted that advanced technologies such as AI will mean a reduced corporate workforce, with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy telling employees in a memo last month that that the company's corporate workforce will shrink in the coming years as it deploys more AI in its operations. It's clear that robotics and AI are rapidly reshaping how work gets done in warehouses and beyond, with Amazon's push toward automation indicative of a much broader shift across the industry as companies everywhere embrace new technologies for more efficient operations. As for Amazon's warehouse workers, adapting to new roles alongside robots is becoming the new normal.

Robots to overtake human staff in Amazon warehouses

Robots are on track to outnumber humans in Amazon's warehouses for the first time as the business increasingly turns to machines to handle the millions of packages it sends a day. The tech giant said on Tuesday it now has more than 1m robots globally, which range from mechanical arms to wheeled transporters that patrol its warehouse floors. This figure is approaching the total number of staff Amazon employs across its shipping warehouses, according to the Wall Street Journal. The number of robots deployed by Amazon has risen fivefold since 2020, when it had 200,000, and comes amid increasing fears that automation will impact job openings. Amazon does not say how many staff work in its warehouses, but they make up the majority of its 1.56m total employees, a number that has flatlined in recent years. It claims that its robots "work alongside our employees", preventing them from heavy lifting and allowing staff to progress into technical roles such as maintaining and monitoring the robots. Amazon's warehouses were often highly reliant on human workers, who often walked more than 10 miles a shift as they pushed carts between shelves to select items for packaging. But the company has increasingly mechanised the process. Wheeled robots typically deliver bulky rotating shelves to stationary human "pickers" who sort them, although the company is deploying more robotic arms that pick up items. An analysis by the Wall Street Journal found that Amazon shipped 3,870 packages per employee last year, compared to 175 in 2015. It also revealed that the number of Amazon employees per facility has fallen to its lowest level in 16 years. Can robots create new jobs? The company says it has retrained 700,000 workers since 2019 and that its more automated warehouses have led to a 30pc increase in reliability, maintenance and engineering jobs. It comes as research on Monday found that entry-level jobs were in free-fall amid the rise of AI systems such as ChatGPT, with the number of job adverts having fallen by a third since 2022. An Amazon spokesman said: "Our operations network has evolved significantly over the past few years, driven not just by growth, but by the diversity of facilities we manage to better serve our customers. "As we've hired hundreds of thousands of new employees over the past decade, we've also expanded into new types of sites - like sub-same-day fulfilment centres and delivery stations - which have smaller employee footprints and help us deliver with greater speed. "These shifts, supported by new automation and AI systems, help us get closer to customers, create jobs in new communities, and improve the experience for both employees and shoppers."

Amazon will soon deploy more bots than it employs people now that it has a million robots

Rejoice, you giant bags of mostly water, for Amazon has deployed its one millionth bot (via TechCrunch). And by some estimates, that means it is on track to have more robots than human employees. Wait, Amazon has over a million employees? Actually, according to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has a 1.56 million-strong throng of human souls, presumably most of them toiling away in fulfilment warehouses. Anyway, it's taken 13 years of bot deployment to reach the million milestone. The millionth automaton was apparently installed in an Amazon warehouse in Japan, allowing Amazon to say that it is "building on our position as the world's largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics." Along with sheer scale, Amazon is claiming upgraded smarts for its latest bots. "We're also introducing a new generative AI foundation model we've designed to make our entire fleet of robots smarter and more efficient. Called DeepFleet, this AI technology will coordinate the movement of robots across our fulfillment network, improving the travel time of our robotic fleet by 10% and enabling us to deliver packages to customers faster and at lower costs," the company says. The result is that 75% of Amazon deliveries are now assisted in some way by robots. One of the newest bots assisting in that effort is "Vulcan". Unveiled in May, Vulcan has two arms, cameras, suction cups and a sense of "touch". Amazon says it's capable of self-improving over time, which isn't in the least bit unnerving. Not. At. All. If this all sounds like bad news for we humans, the Wall Street Journal claims otherwise. It cites examples of menial, repetitive work being replaced by bots, with humans occupying more rewarding and better-paid oversight roles. "I thought I was going to be doing heavy lifting, I thought I was going to be walking like crazy," the WSJ quotes Neisha Cruz, who spent five years picking items at an Amazon warehouse in Windsor, Connecticut. She has since been trained in a robotic oversight role, and the WSJ says she earns 2.5 times as much as before. How typical that is of the Amazon experience is very hard to say. Overall, the WSJ claims that Amazon has increased the number of packages shipped per employee per year from around 175 in 2015 to 3,870 today. A quick bit of maths puts that at about six billion packages per year. Frankly, the numbers get silly pretty fast as soon as you look at almost anything Amazon does. And it's very hard to know what the long-term positives and negatives of it all will be. But more bots seem to be the one fairly safe assumption.

Amazon Deploys One Millionth Warehouse Robot to Boost Automation

Amazon has recently reached a key milestone by deploying its one-millionth robot in warehouses around the world. This latest robot was added to a fulfillment center in Japan. To further improve efficiency, the company introduced a new AI system called DeepFleet. This generative AI model helps manage the movement of all the robots in their facilities, making their travel routes about 10% faster. Although 10% might not seem like a huge number at first glance, when you consider the sheer scale of Amazon's operations, this improvement can lead to significant time and cost savings. Currently, Amazon employs roughly 1.56 million people, mostly working in its warehouses. But the number of robots in those warehouses is growing quickly and might soon exceed the human workforce. These robots perform a variety of jobs such as picking items from shelves, moving goods around for packing, and sorting packages. The robot lineup is diverse -- for example, Hercules is built to move heavy inventory loads weighing as much as 1,250 pounds. Pegasus handles individual packages with the help of a precise conveyor belt system. Meanwhile, Proteus is Amazon's first fully autonomous mobile robot; it can move around employees safely while carrying heavy carts. Amazon says that its use of robots is not about replacing workers but rather changing how they work. So far, about 700,000 employees have been retrained to operate alongside new technology and robotics. Automating routine and physically demanding tasks lets workers focus on roles that require more technical skills, such as monitoring robotic systems or managing automation workflows. This upskilling is also linked to better earning opportunities for employees. Amazon is also working on more advanced robots that could respond to verbal commands from staff, and it's testing humanoid robots equipped with arms, legs, and heads to handle more complex tasks in the future. Source: tomshardware

Amazon now has a million robots working in its warehouses, guided by new DeepFleet AI tech

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. TweakTown may also earn commissions from other affiliate partners at no extra cost to you. Amazon has announced that it now has a million robots working behind the scenes in its retail empire, and a new AI model to help make those bots a lot smarter - which will ultimately mean faster deliveries. DeepFleet AI tech promises better navigation for robots in Amazon's warehouses (Image Credit: Amazon) In a press release that Tom's Hardware picked up, Amazon made the revelation that its millionth robot just went live in a fulfillment center in Japan. The bigger story here, though, is that Amazon is introducing a new generative AI model to make its robots smarter. It's called DeepFleet, and the idea is that it is the equivalent of an AI-powered navigation system, helping to manage the movement of the robots in warehouses so that they have more optimal pathing collectively, making time savings therein. The press release states: "This AI technology (DeepFleet) will coordinate the movement of robots across our fulfillment network, improving the travel time of our robotic fleet by 10% and enabling us to deliver packages to customers faster and at lower costs." The end goal, then, is speedier fulfillment of deliveries, and Amazon notes that the AI model will, of course, learn over time, and get better at the task of honing the optimal paths for Amazon's robotic fleet. The obvious downside for humans is that robots are getting jobs that people could have. Indeed, Tom's Hardware points out that according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Amazon is close to having more bots than human staff. Naturally, Amazon is aware of this perception, and observes that its army of bots can take over more menial tasks, leaving humans to be employed in more skilled roles. Amazon informs us: "Over 700,000 employees have been upskilled through training programs that prepare (Amazon's) workforce for the future."

Amazon's Robotic Warehouse Workforce Nears Size of Human Staff, Report Says

Amazon (AMZN) will reportedly soon have as many robots working in its warehouses as it does humans. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Amazon has deployed over 1 million robots in its warehouses. The tech firm employs around 1.56 million people, the report said, with most of them in warehouses. Roughly 75% of the e-commerce giant's global deliveries "are assisted in some way by robotics," the Journal said, adding that the "average number of employees Amazon had per facility last year, roughly 670, was the lowest recorded in the past 16 years." Amazon didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he expected the company would trim its workforce over the next few years with the spread of artificial intelligence. Amazon shares, which entered Tuesday flat this year, are little changed in premarket trading.

Amazon Now Employs Nearly as Many Robots as People in Its Warehouses

As Amazon relies more on robots for order fulfillment, it needs fewer human employees on staff. Amazon is now using more than one million robots in its warehouses, the most it has ever deployed, and there are now nearly as many robots in Amazon facilities as there are people, according to The Wall Street Journal. Robots assist in a variety of functions, ranging from sorting items to packaging them for shipment. For example, a new robot named Vulcan can select products from different shelves to be packaged. Amazon told the WSJ that 75% of its global deliveries, or three in four packages, are facilitated in some way by robotics. Related: Amazon Tells Thousands of Employees to Relocate or Resign As Amazon relies more on robots for order fulfillment, it needs fewer human employees on staff. Amazon employs about 1.56 million people, with most working in warehouses. According to a WSJ analysis, the average number of employees per Amazon facility dropped to 670 people per warehouse last year, the lowest count in the past 16 years. It also found that Amazon employees are now more productive than they were a decade ago -- the number of packages shipped per employee has skyrocketed from 175 in 2015 to about 3,870 last year. Amazon leadership confirmed that the company is using AI to improve operations in its warehouses and potentially cut down its number of employees. In a memo to employees sent last month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated that the company was "using AI to improve inventory placement, demand forecasting, and the efficiency of our robots." Related: Amazon Is Expanding Same-Day Delivery to Thousands of Small Towns and Rural Areas Jassy wrote that as Amazon rolls out more AI features to its robots, the company "will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today," which will "reduce" Amazon's workforce over the "next few years." Still, the company told the WSJ that it has trained more than 700,000 workers globally through apprenticeships for jobs that involve working with robots, such as robot technicians. Amazon began incorporating robotics into its operations over a decade ago, when it bought robotics company Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012. Kiva made robots that moved bulky, unpackaged items around a facility. Since the acquisition, Amazon has introduced new robots, such as Proteus, its first fully autonomous mobile robot that can move freely throughout a warehouse. Proteus, which Amazon debuted in 2022, uses sensors to detect and navigate around objects in its path. It can lift as much as 880 pounds. Its task is to move heavy carts with packages to a loading dock, where packages can then be loaded onto trucks.

Amazon Hits 1 Million Robots, Should Human Workers Be Worried? - Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)

E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc AMZN has invested in robots over the years to help make its warehouses and facilities more efficient. The company is celebrating a robotics milestone alongside a new generative AI model. What Happened: Amazon recently celebrated its one millionth robot in operations, a significant new milestone hit since 750,000 in early 2024. Along with the milestone, Amazon also announced its new generative AI foundation model that will improve robot fleet travel efficiency by 10%. The company said the new technology will support faster delivery times and lower costs for customers. "We've just deployed our 1 millionth robot, building on our position as the world's largest manufacturer and operator of mobile robotics," Amazon Robotics Vice President Scott Dresser said in a post. Dresser said the new generative AI technology called DeepFleet makes robots smarter. "Think of DeepFleet as an intelligent traffic management system for a city filled with cars moving through congested streets." Read Also: Amazon Q1 Earnings: Double Beat, Q2 Guidance, CEO Focuses On Making 'Customers' Lives Easier And Better' Why It's Important: In the blog post celebrating the milestone, Dresser highlighted the ongoing journey of Amazon's robots, which started in 2012 with a single type of robot that could move inventory shelves. "Today, we operate a diverse fleet of robots, designed to make our employees' jobs easier and safer, and our operations more efficient," Dresser said. Dresser highlighted the company's Hercules robot, which can lift up to 1,250 pounds of inventory, and the company's Proteus fully autonomous mobile robot that can safely navigate around employees. While the one million robots milestone could spark worry that the 1.5 million Amazon human employees could someday be replaced, Dresser highlights how the two work hand in hand and there are opportunities for employees. Dresser said since 2019, over 700,000 employees have been upskilled with training initiatives through robotics. The Amazon Robotics Vice President said the company's new fulfillment center in Louisiana, launched late 2024, requires 30% more employees in various roles. "The technology we're building does more than move products -- it's transforming workplace safety and creating new career opportunities." Amazon currently has around 1.5 million human employees worldwide, a total that could someday be surpassed by robots, given Amazon's impressive technology advancements pace. "The combination of our million-robot milestone and DeepFleet points to an exciting future where robotics and AI work together to reimagine what's possible in fulfilment and delivery." Amazon acquired robotic company Kiva Systems in 2012 for $775 million. Kiva changed its name to Amazon Robotics in 2015 and has been a large focus of the e-commerce company since then. While other tech companies are laying off workers due to the advancement of AI, Amazon is as of right now creating opportunities for workers to work alongside robots and the latest AI technology, as long as they are willing to learn and take part in programs that teach them the latest technologies. Read Next: Trump Wants Babies To Get $1,000 To Invest At Birth: This Magnificent 7 Stock Tops Poll For 18-Year Growth Photo: Courtesy Amazon AMZNAmazon.com Inc$220.20-0.12%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum52.12Growth97.01Quality66.23Value49.51Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Amazon Nearing Equal Number of Human and Robot Warehouse Workers | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. That's according to a report Tuesday (July 1) by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which points out that the eCommerce giant is approaching another automation milestone: the company will soon have as many robots as humans in these facilities. These machines include wheeled robots that move goods around the floor for packaging, or arms that help sort products. Amazon recently rolled out Vulcan, a robot equipped with a sense of touch that allows it to pluck products from shelves. In addition, the WSJ adds, the company has been trying to connect its robots to its fulfillment operations, letting the machines work with each other and with humans. "They're one step closer to that realization of the full integration of robotics," Rueben Scriven, research manager at Interact Analysis, a robotics consulting firm, told the WSJ. According to the report, roughly three-quarters of Amazon's deliveries now involve robotics in some fashion. This growing automation has helped the company boost productivity, while lessening the need to deal with high staff turnover at its fulfillment centers, the WSJ added. Tye Brady, Amazon Robotics' chief technologist, said in an interview with the WSJ that the new robots are designed to make workers' jobs easier rather than replacing them. And Sheheryar Kaoosji, executive director at the Warehouse Worker Resource Center, a nonprofit that advocates for warehouse workers, said robotics haven't yet changed jobs in smaller Amazon sites as in large fulfillment centers. Still, Kaoosji expressed concern about the longer-term effect on employment, arguing that Amazon's "dream is to have significant reduction of workforce in high-density facilities." Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote recently about the "retail realignment" underway in Amazon's ongoing battle with rival Walmart. "This realignment is not just about who sells what to whom; but how, why and with what consequence," that report said. "Despite their shared ambitions, Amazon and Walmart are following different scripts." For Amazon, that means its long-term commitment to "platform thinking: build once, scale infinitely," with its own tech stack, cloud infrastructure, means of distribution, along with a retail business powered by Prime, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Marketplace and AI. For its part Walmart is playing to its traditional strengths while heavily investing in modernization, including an upgrade to its headquarters to reflect a tech-forward mindset. "Both companies are converging on the same outcome: frictionless commerce," the report continued. "Yet, the pathways they take -- one engineered from code and the other from community presence -- highlight the strategic diversity in retail."

Amazon will soon employ more robots than humans as 1 million machines...

Amazon will soon use more robots in its warehouses than human employees -- with more than 1 million machines already deployed across facilities, according to a report. Many of these robots cover the heavy lifting involved in warehouse work, picking items down from tall shelves and moving goods around facilities. Others are advanced enough to help humans sort and package orders, according to the Wall Street Journal. Three-quarters of Amazon's global deliveries are now assisted in some way by robots, according to the company. "They're one step closer to that realization of the full integration of robotics," Rueben Scriven, research manager at robotics consulting firm Interact Analysis, told the Journal. Amazon said the robots have allowed them to free up workers for more skilled tasks and cut down on repetition. "Since introducing robots within Amazon's operations, we've continued to hire hundreds of thousands of employees to work in our facilities and created many new job categories worldwide, including positions like flow control specialists, floor monitors, and reliability maintenance engineers," an Amazon spokesperson told The Post. At a 3-million-square-foot facility in Shreveport, La., more than six dozen robotic arms sort and stack millions of items. They prepare carts to be loaded onto trucks and package paper bags for orders. These advanced bots work in tandem with human workers at the Louisiana warehouse, handing products to employees to fill orders and reaching for hard-to-grab items inside shelves as workers supervise. Products whizz through this facility 25% faster than at other warehouses. That's consistent with Amazon's overall productivity, which has soared despite employing fewer workers per facility. The average number of employees per facility dropped to roughly 670 last year - its lowest level in the past 16 years, according to a Journal analysis. The number of packages shipped per employee, meanwhile, has risen to 3,870 from just 175 a decade ago, according to the Journal. Amazon expects its corporate workforce to shrink over the next few years, too, as artificial intelligence turns some jobs completed by humans obsolete, CEO Andy Jassy admitted last month. "Like with every technical transformation, there will be fewer people doing some of the jobs that the technology actually starts to automate," Jassy said Monday, doubling down during an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer. "But there's going to be other jobs." About 1.56 million people work for Amazon, with most in warehouses.That makes the Jeff Bezos-owned firm the second-largest private employer in the US. The use of robots has allowed Amazon to improve productivity during periods of high staff turnover, and relegate more repetitive tasks to machines. Neisha Cruz, an Amazon worker who spent five years picking items at a Windsor, Conn. facility, now does computer work in an Arizona office. "I thought I was going to be doing heavy lifting, I thought I was going to be walking like crazy," Cruz told the Journal. In her new role, she oversees mobile robots across several facilities to ensure they're working properly - and earns about 2.5 times more than when started at the company. Amazon said it has trained more than 700,000 global workers for higher-paying jobs that can include working with robotics. "You have completely new jobs being created," like robot technicians, Yesh Dattatreya, senior applied scientist at Amazon Robotics, told the Journal. Dattatreya is leading a new team tasked with implementing artificial intelligence across Amazon robotics, with the goal of machines one day being able to respond to verbal commands, according to the Journal. Amazon first made the leap into robotics in 2012, when it paid $775 million to buy Kiva Systems, which made robots that could move shelves of products around. Now the company is in the early stages of testing a humanoid robot with legs, arms and a head for use in warehouse work, according to Amazon.