Robots To Takeover 6 Lakh Jobs At Amazon Facilities By 2030, Says Report

To improve efficiency and reduce the workforce, Amazon is reportedly planning to automate around 75% of its operations. This would increase the number of robots in its US-based facilities and could replace nearly 6 lakh jobs, reported The New York Times on Tuesday, citing leaked internal documents.

Ramping up the number of robots in its facilities would boost productivity as it would help the firm to sell nearly twice as many goods within that time period, according to the NYT report.

Amazon's Robotics Team To Automate Up to 75% Of Company Operations

The new automation plan of Amazon facilities would help the company to avoid 1,60,000 US employees that could have been hired by 2027. As per the NYT report, the company plans to save up to $12.6 billion between 2025 and 2027 with automation.

The company has also created plans to deal with any backlash that could have arisen as a result of the automation of US-based facilities. As per the NYT report, based on Amazon's internal documents, the company has used terms like "advanced technology", "cobot" instead of words like "AI" or "Automation".

'Leaked Document Often Paints an Incomplete Picture': Amazon

The media report doesn't represent Amazon's overall hiring strategy across the company's various operations business lines, Amazon replied to an email query sent by GoodReturns.
"Leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans, and that's the case here. In our written narrative culture, thousands of documents circulate throughout the company at any given time, each with varying degrees of accuracy and timeliness. In this instance, the materials appear to reflect the perspective of just one team and don't represent our overall hiring strategy across our various operations business lines - now or moving forward," stated Kelly Nantel, Amazon spokesperson.

"The facts speak for themselves: No company has created more jobs in America over the past decade than Amazon. We're actively hiring at operations facilities across the country and recently announced plans to fill 250,000 positions for the holiday season," as per the statement.

Impact On Jobs In the US

If the speculations are true, the execution of plans could impact over one million employees and drastically cut the headcounts within the next few years. The plan to automate facilities is a part of Amazon's larger plans to increase efficiency as global competition in e-commerce intensifies. As the AI-driven revolution continues to pose a threat to jobs, the automation plan will reportedly help the company to process orders faster, reduce operational errors, and deliver products with greater precision.

The automation plan is not limited to facilities and warehouses, and can be extended to logistics services and delivery operations, including self-driving delivery vehicles and even drone shipping programs. The automation transformation at Amazon will reportedly include use of services like Sequoia, Proteus, etc. These machines are equipped with sensors, cameras, and AI algorithms.

The development coincides with another report by Fortune on Amazon layoffs. As per the report, the company is planning to cut nearly 15% of its human resources staff. Additionally, there could be more job cuts in other divisions. Amazon's HR team includes around 10,000 employees across the world consisting of recruiting team, technology staffs and employees related to traditional HR roles.