In recent weeks, Amazon announced that its warehouses are starting to adopt new robotic arms and sorting machines fueled by artificial intelligence, starting with a fulfillment center in Houston. The retail giant says the new tech will help address safety issues for its workers, but its main objective is to boost productivity and shorten delivery times even further. Amazon claims its new robotics system can cut order fulfillment time by up to 25% and sort inventory up to 75% more quickly. The introduction of robotics technology into warehouse operations—a shift mirrored by competitors like Walmart—is hardly new for Amazon, which has strived for years to create robotic arms on par with its human workers. But the latest development raises questions about the degree to which automation will impact, and eventually supplant, the hundreds of thousands of workers that keep Amazon’s warehouses running. Amazon denies that the ultimate goal is to reduce headcount. “We don’t see automation and robotics as vehicles for eliminating jobs,” Amazon spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis tells Fast Company in a statement. “Our workforce has more than doubled in size since the beginning of 2019, growing to over 1.5 million people globally—all while we’ve expanded the use of robotics in our operations facilities.” But to Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, it seems inevitable that Amazon may eventually use the new technology to cut jobs, even if it won’t happen overnight.
Full story : Amazon Labour Union leader, Chris Smalls shares how Amazon’s AI-powered robots will impact workers.
