Inside Amazon’s robot-powered future
At an Amazon robotics facility outside Boston, machines are already doing the kind of work once done by people.
(NBC)- At an Amazon robotics facility outside Boston, machines are already doing the kind of work once done by people — lifting, scanning, and sorting packages around the clock.
“It’ll suction onto the box to pick it up, and then it’ll place it in the tote where it needs to go,” said Aaron Martin, demonstrating one of the robots.
Just four years ago, Martin was stocking bins in an Amazon warehouse. Now, those same tasks are being handled by robots that the company says work faster and with fewer injuries.
When asked whether automation means fewer human workers, Ofori Agboka, Amazon’s vice president of human resources, was careful with his words. “Our populations and sizes — where people sit in the footprint — are going to vary as we grow,” he said.
That flexibility may signal big changes ahead. In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees the company plans to “reduce our total workforce as we get efficiency gains using AI.”
And according to a New York Times report, internal documents show Amazon’s robotics team has a goal to automate 75% of operations by 2033, which could translate to 600,000 jobs Amazon won’t need to fill. The company disputes that figure, saying the report reflects “the perspective of just one team” and “does not represent our overall hiring strategy.”
Agboka said he doesn’t expect robots to outnumber people at Amazon anytime soon. “I don’t foresee that,” he said. “AI is going to change the nature of everything we do — the key is getting familiar with it.”
For workers like Martin, that familiarity has paid off. He enrolled in Amazon’s apprenticeship program, where he learned to maintain and repair the robots that replaced his old job. “You got paid to go to school,” he said. “We went eight hours a day, five days a week.”
Today, Martin is a senior mechatronics and robotics technician, earning over $40 an hour — up from $11 when he started at the warehouse.
Amazon says more than 300,000 U.S. employees have been trained or reassigned to new roles as AI and automation reshape its operations.
