Automatic looms replaced human workers during the Industrial Revolution that made Britain a world power and reduced the cost of producing cotton cloth. Later in the 1960s, the use of robots in car factories again caused human workers to lose their jobs. The next industry to be affected by automation is e-commerce with Amazon reportedly looking to eliminate more than 600,000 human workers with robots by 2033.
According to a report by The New York Times which saw internal Amazon documents, in the initial stage 160,000 workers will be replaced as early as 2027. This is believed to reduce operating costs by 30 cents per package. Amazon can save $12.6 billion between 2025-2027 through the use of robots. In the same document, Amazon targets that 75% of their operations will be carried out by robots in the future.
Amazon was among the first American companies to test the use of robots in their warehouses and short-distance package delivery processes. This year they announced the deployment of 1 million robots with DeepFleet technology in their warehouses and the development of Vulcan robots that can carefully hold packages.
