Amazon now has almost as many robots as people working in its warehouses

Amazon

Amazon’s warehouses are starting to look a lot more robotic. The company now has over one million robots working in its facilities, which is almost as many as the number of human workers there. This is the highest number of robots Amazon has ever had.

For years, Amazon has been bringing in more machines to do jobs that were once done by people. If you walk into one of their warehouses today, you will see robot arms picking items from shelves and little robot carts moving packages around. There are also machines helping with sorting and packing.

One of Amazon’s newest robots is called Vulcan. It is smart enough to feel what it is picking, which helps it grab items from shelves more accurately. These robots are now connected to the company’s entire order system, so they can work smoothly with each other and with human workers.

Amazon says that about 75 percent of its deliveries worldwide are now helped in some way by robots. This has made the company faster and more efficient. It has also helped with problems like high worker turnover.

The rise of robots is not all bad news for employees. Some workers have actually moved into better jobs because of it. For example, Neisha Cruz used to spend her days lifting and walking a lot while picking items in a warehouse. Now, after getting trained to manage robots, she works from an office watching the robots on a screen and makes more than double what she used to earn.

But not every story is that positive. Robots are also replacing some jobs. The average number of people working in each warehouse has dropped to the lowest it has been in 16 years. Amazon has also said it plans to cut more jobs in the coming years as automation continues to grow.

The company says it will still need plenty of human workers and that robots are there to make jobs safer and easier. But not everyone is convinced. Worker groups are worried that the long-term goal could be to rely on fewer humans.

One thing is clear. Amazon’s future is looking more robotic than ever.