Amazon testing new warehouse robots and AI tools for workers
Amazon.com is building an e-commerce fulfillment business where humans are more efficient and less necessary, thanks to artificial intelligence and robots.
Artificial intelligence that makes humans more efficient and robots that make them less necessary: That’s the future Amazon.com is building in its e-commerce fulfillment business.
The retail giant unveiled a trio of new technologies Wednesday that it is testing or preparing to deploy in its warehouses and delivery vans. They include a robot arm called Blue Jay, designed to sort packages; an artificial-intelligence agent called Eluna, intended to help human managers deploy workers and avoid bottlenecks; and augmented-reality glasses to be worn by delivery drivers in the field.
The announcements are the latest in a yearslong effort by Amazon to automate more warehouse tasks, an effort that began with the company’s $775 million acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012. Around three-quarters of Amazon’s deliveries are in some way assisted by robots, the company has said.
Chief Executive Andy Jassy is pushing for Amazon to embrace AI tools even more than it already has and has said he expected the result to be a diminished need for white-collar workers. Wednesday’s announcement shows how that same trend might play out on the warehouse floor. The average number of workers in Amazon facilities fell to around 670 in 2024, the lowest in 16 years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Analysts expect Amazon to see billions of dollars in cost savings every year as it automates more of the logistics process, both through increased efficiency and reduced need for humans. The company is projected to have nearly 40 delivery fulfillment centers equipped with robots by the end of next year, which Morgan Stanley estimated would result in up to $4 billion in cost savings.
Amazon said it is trialing the Blue Jay robots at a facility in South Carolina, with the goal of deploying them in a network of same-day delivery centers that will enable cheaper and faster package deliveries. Eluna is scheduled for a test run at a Tennessee warehouse, where the company says managers will be able to ask it questions such as: “Where should we shift people to avoid a bottleneck?"
An early version of Amazon’s warehouse of the future is already at work.
At the company’s cutting-edge facility in Shreveport, La., robot arms sort packages into carts which are then carried to trucks by machines resembling large robot vacuums. Other robots assist humans by grabbing out-of-reach items. As a result, items move through the Shreveport facility 25% faster than other locations, Amazon has said.
Amazon says its goal is to improve safety and offload mundane tasks to AI and robots. The company is also investing in training current workers, offering apprenticeships designed to teach them to manage these robots.
Amazon has also tested humanoid robots called Digit, which can shift items around a warehouse, at a facility outside Boston.
For the company’s fleet of delivery drivers, Amazon showed off a pair of AI-powered AR glasses that can identify the correct packages to deliver, provide turn-by-turn directions to drop-off locations and even flag the presence of dogs. Many of these functions are currently handled by smartphones carried by the drivers. Amazon said it tested early versions of the device with hundreds of drivers, but didn’t say if it planned to roll the technology out for broader use.
The number of packages each driver carries has nearly doubled over the past five years, managers of Amazon last-mile delivery fleets say. Delays in locating the correct drop-off location is a common way that drivers fall behind, the managers say.
Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com
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