It turns out that Amazon is planning to automate 75% of its work with robots and replace 500,000 employees with robots
While some tasks are automated by robots in Amazon's vast warehouses, they still employ a large number of people, about 1.2 million in the U.S. alone. Internal documents obtained by The New York Times reveal that Amazon is expanding its robotic automation and planning to replace 500,000 workers with robots.
Inside Amazon's Plans to Replace Workers With Robots - The New York Times
Amazon plans for 75 percent of operations to be run by robots, report reveals | Mashable
https://mashable.com/article/amazon-replace-humans-robots
Amazon has huge warehouses and logistics centers around the world, and many robots are actively employed in these warehouses. For example, at the Amazon Ibaraki Fulfillment Center, which began operation in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture in 2019, autonomous robots are in operation to move shelves full of packages.
I saw an autonomous robot carrying an entire Amazon shelf at the site of the giant logistics system 'Amazon Robotics' - GIGAZINE
You can see countless robots moving shelves in the video below. Amazon continues to expand its robot deployment, and in July 2025, the world's 1 millionth robot was deployed in a warehouse in Japan .
Amazon Ibaraki FC's cutting-edge logistics system 'Amazon Robotics' drives shelves - YouTube
Amazon continues to expand its employment of both robots and humans, with its U.S. workforce more than tripling since 2018 to approximately 1.2 million. However, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times, Amazon executives plan to replace more than 500,000 employees with robots. Furthermore, an Amazon executive reportedly told a board meeting, 'We expect product sales to double by 2033, but the introduction of robots will allow us to maintain our workforce without increasing it for the next few years.'
Amazon's robotics team has an ultimate goal of automating 75% of its operations, and the automation team estimates that it will be able to avoid the need for more than 160,000 jobs in the US by 2027. These job avoidance efforts will save Amazon approximately 30 cents (about 45 yen) per product.
Amazon began operating a next-generation fulfillment center in Shreveport, Louisiana in October 2024. The Shreveport warehouse employs nearly 1,000 robots, including robotic arms like Robin, Cardinal, and Sparrow, as well as the autonomous robot Proteus. The number of employees has been reduced to one-quarter of what it would be without robots. Amazon plans to continue increasing the number of robots, reducing the number of employees to half of what it would be without robots.
Amazon plans to install a system similar to the one in Shreveport at approximately 40 locations by the end of 2027, including by renovating existing warehouses. The New York Times points out, 'Amazon's plan will have a major impact on blue-collar workers across America, and other companies, including Walmart and UPS, the country's largest employers, may follow suit. Amazon has transformed American labor by rapidly increasing demand for warehousing and delivery services. But automation efforts spearheaded by Amazon could make warehousing and delivery-related jobs more specialized, higher-paying, and scarcer.'
In response to the New York Times, Amazon said in a statement that the documents reviewed by the Times were incomplete and did not represent Amazon's overall hiring strategy, and that Amazon plans to hire 250,000 people for the upcoming holiday season. The Times noted that the company did not disclose how many of the 250,000 hires will be full-time positions.
Documents obtained by The New York Times also revealed that Amazon was considering using terms like 'advanced technology' and 'cobots' (a term referring to the collaboration between robots and humans) instead of terms like 'automation,' 'AI,' and 'robots' when discussing robotics, and that employees were being asked to participate in community events to build an image of themselves as 'good corporate citizens.' Amazon responded, 'Amazon does not pressure executives to avoid using specific terms, and our community engagement has nothing to do with automation.'
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Amazon announces two new robot systems, 'Blue Jay' and 'Project Eluna,' and Amazon claims it won't take jobs.
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