Amazon is rolling out a major overhaul of its fulfilment centres¹⁷ using new AI and robotics to speed up deliveries. Amazon says that the new technology is designed to work alongside human employees to reduce injuries. Nice, but what about lunch and pee time mate? 👉👈

What's going on here?

Amazon's new warehouse system will significantly cut delivery times and make inventory tracking much faster.

What does this mean?

Amazon's revamp introduces robots and AI into its warehouses to reduce the time it takes to process orders. The centrepiece is a robotic arm called Sparrow and a new sortation system named Sequoia. Together, these will slash the time to fulfil orders by up to 25% while identifying inventory 75% faster. Amazon’s plans for Sequoia include the “same-day delivery sites” it’s working on.

Why should I care?

The claim from Amazon is that automation is not about eliminating jobs but rather mundane tasks. The goal is to integrate robots seamlessly into workflows. Though, I believe the pattern of people who can’t adapt to these newer workflows (which, I agree, is easier said than done) will lose their jobs.

Rivals like Walmart are also turning warehouse jobs into robot management roles. Amazon would also start to test a bipedal robot named Digit in its operations. We’re not ready for LLMs, now imagine AI + robotics.