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Amazon hopes to replace 600k US workers with robots
- Frieren 1y agoIt is obvious that Amazon wishes to replace all its employees for cheaper alternatives. That is true for all big companies. How realistic is this plan that is the question. American companies lie so often about the feasibility of future capabilities that it is becoming just background noise. If the plan is not realistic, if it is not based in well argued projects, then they are just lying to the public and to investors. Currently the bar is so low, that anything counts as "we just though that it was possible" so it is not illegal. That should be solved.
- freedomben 1y agoYou're not wrong, but an important distinction in this case (at least according to TFA) is that these were internal documents, not intended for the public/investors.
- GauntletWizard 1y agoInternal documents doesn't mean they weren't lying. It just changes the target, the expected audience, of the lie. Many workers lie to their bosses. They speak what they think their bosses want to hear, and bosses tell them what lies they want to be told.
- consp 1y agoInternal communication is also subject to lies and misrepresentation. Gotta earn that bonus somehow.
- kulahan 1y agoSo, what, nothing can be trusted ever??
- swiftcoder 1y agoIt can be trusted that someone wrote this for a specific audience. Whether the contextual understanding of that audience matches our own is another matter.
- WillAdams 1y agoAs a person who worked in an Amazon Warehouse on two separate occasions, one for roughly a year part-time: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfillment_center_warehouse_worker/ https://www.reddit.com/r/EDC/comments/dmnuts/53mamazon_fulfi... the desire to save money/replace workers is real (though I wish that they would start by recycling packaging/materials in the warehouses) and there are certainly a lot of ways in which this could be done --- the issue of course is how society will work through this --- I suspect we'd all feel a bit differently about this if Amazon were a public benefit corporation rather than one focused on profit for shareholders. Their motto is: >Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History. and it really should have included something about making the world a better place or doing good.....
- hello_moto 1y ago> How realistic is this plan that is the question. FTA: Amazon has considered steps to improve its image as a “good corporate citizen” in preparation for the anticipated backlash around job losses, according to The NYT, reporting that the company considered participating in community projects and avoiding terms like “automation” and “AI.” More vague terms like “advanced technology” were explored instead, and using the term “cobot” for robots that work alongside humans.
- ky_vulnerable 1y agoWhat matters in the end is the robots we made along the way. That's how the saying goes, right?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- Eric_WVGG 1y agoFuture-of-work stuff aside, I’m always confused when I see bipedal robots. Doesn't make any sense unless one is dealing with rough terrain — and there, four or six legs would probably be better. I guess they're cool for Boston Dynamics investor videos. For floor work, wheels seem the most logical. There is the issue of loading trucks (which I did at UPS for a couple summers), for that I’m thinking maybe a ceiling-mounted arm that could extend the length of the truck?
- skeezyjefferson 1y agoim not sure about anyone else, but I can tell when a human has pick/packed my order, and the product is always better for it.
- echoangle 1y ago> im not sure about anyone else, but I can tell when a human has pick/packed my order, and the product is always better for it. How would you verify that your belief is correct?
- kulahan 1y agoI don't think it's particularly surprising that humans are better at things than robots, sometimes even purpose-built robots. The question is if robots are good enough that the difference doesn't really matter. It's throwing shit in a box. Who cares how neat it is? As long as things arrive sealed and intact, it's fine.
- alexpotato 1y agoThere was a great quote about robots in agriculture: "When it comes to olive picking, the best a robot can do is get 60% of the olives. Humans can do about ~80%. Robots are so much cheaper than humans that it makes sense to use the robot even with the 60/80 performance split."
- aeblyve 1y agoI don't really agree... I try to avoid handmade or artisanal things as they are inconsistent in quality and wildly expensive. Including in software.
- swiftcoder 1y ago> handmade or artisanal things as they are inconsistent in quality and wildly expensive. Including in software. Given that, as far as I can tell, most handmade artisanal software is given away for free (or nearly so), what are you basing that on?
- etskinner 1y ago> Job losses could shave 30 cents off each item purchased by 2027. I know this is just a start (and just enough to make the ROI worth it, probably), but it sounds particularly dystopian / late stage capitalism
- baron816 1y agoA key feature of “late stage capitalism” is that people move up the value chain, stop doing menial labor, and find better, more fulfilling jobs that don’t involve putting boxes in other boxes.
- Arainach 1y agos/feature/illusory promise/
- netdevphoenix 1y agoYou can't move up without training. Training costs money and time which is something most people lack
- thewebguyd 1y agoOr aptitude. Not everyone is suited to work like electrical engineering to build the robots, or software development to make the software for them. Computer Science and Engineering is hard, and there’s a lot of folk that just won’t excel in that type of work. We’re going to hit a point where we need UBI, and as a society, be OK changing our views on existence and dispel the notion that one has to “earn” their right to exist within society, because the only other alternative is the top few percentage are the only ones that benefit from the automation while everyone else starves to death.
- rob74 1y agoIn the past, this has meant that people who had manufacturing jobs (i.e. producing something tangible that they could conceivably be proud of doing right) were moved to service jobs like call center operators, delivery workers, Uber drivers, Amazon warehouse workers etc. etc. Not really a step up, I would say. And in the foreseeable future all these jobs (and also some better qualified ones) will be replaced by robots - probably the most dangerous and least fulfilling of them, like delivery workers, will be replaced last. Yay, progress!
- djoldman 1y agoReferenced NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons-plans-to-replace-workers-with-robots.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons...
- xnx 1y agohttps://archive.ph/aXQAP https://archive.ph/aXQAP
- ChrisArchitect 1y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45654865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45654865
- bilekas 1y agoRobots can't unionize so of course they hope to replace everyone in the US. None of it will matter anyway, they're shoveling enough money to the right people to have any regulations or oversight squashed, nevermind the sheer number of jobs that will be lost, I might be wrong but it would be a dent in the national unemployment numbers ? But who cares, they're paying the right people.
- tartuffe78 1y agoWhat are we going to do when there are no more lower middle class / upper lower class customers in this country?
- aeblyve 1y agoThey've been talking about UBI, as one variant.
- pjc50 1y agoNobody has managed the politics of a true UBI, and America will be one of the last places to get it. The need to punish perceived slackers is just too high.
- close04 1y ago> The need to punish perceived slackers is just too high. That's because the US was always in a race to find more enemies to fight. It's an easy way to rally the many under a single banner and then move the banner around as needed by the few.
- antisthenes 1y agoWell, sometimes perception is reality. If you have too many slackers, then your group/society stops functioning altogether and/or succumbs to other, more successful groups. Then it doesn't matter what entitlements you think you should have been getting (or were getting) Also, based on your phrasing, you seem to think that the current system punishes slackers (and/or perceived slackers) and that's our collective preference? In your opinion is this being done deliberately, or just through regular pricing mechanisms of capitalism?
- Analemma_ 1y agoNobody has been talking about UBI except in the same sense that people talk about warp drives, i.e. as a nice-to-have-someday bit of speculative fiction. Everyone is aware that if UBI were actually proposed in the political sphere it would be killed immediately, by most of the some oligarchs who dishonestly talk about it now.
- aeblyve 1y agoI'm supportive of effort to mechanize work, but humanoid robots always seemed like a "horseless carriage" approach to me. The human body is powerful in its adaptability but most industrial processes are better enhanced by purpose-built machines.
- nasmorn 1y agoAt least legs feel strange for a warehouse setting. Wheels are much easier I would guess
- tananaev 1y agoWe've had purpose built machines for a while now. I think the whole point is to have an adaptable machine that can replace remaining humans.
- solumunus 1y agoNot to mention that general purpose robotics seem like they will always be more expensive to buy, run and maintain than a human is. Perhaps bountiful renewable energy will change that.
- fatbird 1y agoA reliable and effective general purpose robot will always be more expensive than a less reliable, less effective human being. Why would you sell something better than the average human willing to take the role, for less than that human wants?
- solumunus 1y agoI’m obviously factoring productivity into this equation. The less effective human will likely always be more cost effective.
- MisterTea 1y agoI see too many students treat a robot arm like an automation hammer when watching a few episodes of "How It's Made" will give you a much better view into true automation.
- pjc50 1y agoNormally I'd be against this kind of thing, but Amazon warehouse work is notoriously abusive and people would be better off out of it .. if they had alternatives.
- Tangurena2 1y agoThere were some bad weather incidents where warehouse workers were not permitted to seek shelter from tornados = from which they died [0]. Additionally, the warehouses are staffed by contractors, who once laid off from the subcontracting company are permabanned from ever working for any other contracting company that Amazon will use. Amazon is literally running out of humans that they can hire. If they are unwilling to address their "one and done" policy, Amazon will have to use robots in order to stay in business. 0 - https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/amazon-warehouse-in-illinois-hit-by-tornado-killing-6.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/amazon-warehouse-in-illinois...
- Simulacra 1y agoI strongly feel the same way about agriculture. Farm work is back breaking, and the people who work in the fields are constantly exposed to pesticides and other environmental dangers, not to mention the physical severely dangerous work they do at times automating that kind of labor would be much safer for workers.
- nba456_ 1y agoIt's so strange that a site full of software developers reacts so harshly to the idea of robots. What exactly is it you people think you are building? You automate stuff for a living. Is it okay to automate sales and customer service and marketing, but warehouse workers are where you draw the line? Do you have any idea how many jobs this industry has already "killed"?
- jolt42 1y agoIt's just an emotional reaction. I don't hear anyone bemoaning the cotton gin.
- soiltype 1y agoSarcasm or comically on-the-nose bad example? The cotton gin is the literal textbook example of a technology that ethically backfires and induces magnitudes greater suffering than what it was intended to obviate. It saved and expanded the institution of chattel slavery in the USA.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- chistev 1y agoIronic
- bromuro 1y agoSoftware ahas created a completely new economy and lot of new jobs. Could we say the same for robots?
- johndhi 1y agopresumably if they become as popular as software, they would...
- Broken_Hippo 1y agoAnd has meant that some professions are basically dead and fewer people are in lots of jobs. The folks that lose jobs aren't generally qualified for the jobs that opened and aren't always even located in the same country. And that happens with a lot of advances. Creates but also takes away.
- code_for_monkey 1y agoare they already in charge of keeping AWS alive?
- nashashmi 1y agoAmazon doesn’t do a good job of handling workers. So I guess this is a good thing. Mistreatment is a bad thing. Prices will be lowered. And the appeal of warehouses will go up this way. But for the remaining workers, I don’t think Amazon will come up with a better work environment. I don’t think they have that skill set.
- jppope 1y agoThere was a reasonable argument floating around that Bezos decided to resign because they had burned both their blue collar AND white collar labor pools in the markets they were in- meaning people wouldn't work for them even at higher rates in that market. I guess this is their solution?
- chasd00 1y agoisn't the dexterity and precision of the human hand to robotics as the problem solving ability of the human brain is to LLMs? Like, are robotics even close to that level of performance?
- dghlsakjg 1y agoYes, but you don't need to replace all human tasks, or come anywhere near the level of performance of a human. If they can get robots to successfully handle any item packaged in a cardboard box, that is a tremendous boon, even if you still have to hire people to deal with blister packaging, bottles and other irregular shapes. Hell, Amazon has enough market power with suppliers that if they say they only want to sell things in robot friendly packages, most suppliers will rapidly find a way.
- quanto 1y ago> Job losses could shave 30 cents off each item purchased by 2027. This is incredible. It's far less than I would imagine. It represents how well optimized the warehouses are. If we roughly estimate a median product price to be $20, then the automation represents less than 2% cost saving. Of course, Amazon is at a scale that this is still net positive despite all the R&D cost. But if automation was to reduce the cost of living, there are probably better areas to focus on.
- hello_moto 1y agoAutomation (and AI) was sold to reduce cost of living but in reality it's all about maximizing profits.
- rob74 1y agoIt represents how well optimized the exploitation of the warehouse workers is - extract maximum amount of work from employee while paying them as little as possible. And once the "cobots" (robots that work alongside humans) come along, they will feel even more like a cog in the great Amazon machine, until they probably quit on their own rather than waiting for their turn to be replaced...
- mhuffman 1y agoThere is no possible way that the board would let the 30 cents that was saved be freely "given" to the customer.
- apothegm 1y agoHow many people are we willing to leave destitute to save 30c (or less after Amazon takes their cut of the increased margin) a few times a month?
- polski-g 1y agoThey won't be destitute. Population collapse is coming, it's imperative we automate anything we can, so those workers are freed up to work in non-automatable jobs. 94% population loss in South Korea over the next three generations. Similar numbers in South America as well.
- Rebuff5007 1y agoBefore people bring their pitchforks to this headline, take a look at existing automation in factories [1][2] and ask yourself why would we ever want humans to do something that robots can do this well? Also despite the fact that humanoids are all the hype now (and included in the article), note that amazon has been investing in much more specialized approaches for quite some time [3][4]. There are so many things we can be doing with our time, and moving objects from a left-bin to a right-bin simply does not need to be one of them. The real question is if we have the collective will to get all these folks education and opportunities to do something else before they feel too much pain in the near term. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/1iwgb19/a_dark_factory_in_china_where_everything_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/1iwgb19/a_dark_factor... [2] https://www.fortna.com/ https://www.fortna.com/ [3] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-vulcan-robot-pick-stow-touch https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/amazon-vulcan-ro... [4] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/10-years-of-amazon-robotics-how-robots-help-sort-packages-move-product-and-improve-safety https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/10-years-of-amaz...
- RaftPeople 1y ago> Before people bring their pitchforks to this headline In addition to your points, something people forget is that in the previous model of brick and mortar stores, the consumer is the person that did the walking around the store and picking the items off the shelf and carrying them to the checkout. So a portion of what Amazon is automating used to be performed for free by the consumer. This was one of the big arguments about their business model for shipping books early on, the additional costs in a competitive retail market seemed like it would be unprofitable.
- CrackerNews 1y agoThat leads to the cost of cleaning up after the customer to make sure they can buy what they need. Before Amazon, there were the club warehouse retail models like Costco where the frontend experience was cut down and the backend infrastructure scaled up. This all led to cost savings passed onto the customer. Amazon seems like the next step where the last mile delivery infrastructure was expanded and the retail frontend was replaced by a website. Instead of millions of frontend retail workers, it's software knowledge workers with an accompanying expansion of the backend retail workers. Now, the software knowledge workers are eating backend retail.
- ChrisArchitect 1y agoSource: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons-plans-to-replace-workers-with-robots.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45654865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45654865)
- jasonpeacock 1y ago"If productivity can be measured by throughput then it shouldn't be done by humans." I forget the author, or the exact quote, but basically this. Brainless jobs should be automated, nobody should be an automaton. This doesn't mean we give up on craftsmanship, but mass production and busy work should be eliminated from human roles.
- _DeadFred_ 1y agoI agree but the problem is there aren't enough other jobs/ways for people to survive in our current system.
- xnx 1y agoThe Verge page adds nothing to (and leave out interesting details from) the original source reporting at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons-plans-to-replace-workers-with-robots.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/technology/inside-amazons...
- ChrisArchitect 1y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45654865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45654865
- insane_dreamer 1y agoEvery time this comes up there are the people who say, "but look at the Industrial Revolution, all the farmers found new jobs; so certainly everyone laid off by AI will find new jobs too". I would like to hear, from one of those believers, _what_ type of _new_ jobs these laid off warehouse workers are going to get? (And no, they won't become AI prompt engineers.) I have not heard a single satisfactory answer to this very simple question. And if no one has any idea of what type of _new_ jobs are opening up, then it's highly unlikely to happen. In the Industrial Revolution, billions (for that time) were being spent on creating whole new types of jobs (i.e., factories). Which companies today are spending any money on creating new jobs?
- Simulacra 1y agoThe autonomous robot revolution is coming. Packing, picking, eventually truck driving, rail, farming, fast food... It's only a matter of time.
- creer 1y ago> At the Shreveport facility, more than 160 people work as robotics technicians, and they make at least $24.45 an hour. Most of Shreveport’s 2,000 employees are regular hourly workers, whose pay starts at $19.50. And this is for a prototype plant where you would expect the need for more and top-qualified technicians. (Most likely this does not count the robotics installers and tuners which might be from a different sub-company and classification - but still.) This might change when demand for qualified robotics technicians keeps increasing. Another noticeable thing was that even with this automation push, Amazon is mostly planning to hire LESS. Not really reduce yet. It seems they are still growing beyond the potential improvements of robotics. Still another is the insane capital-intensiveness of retail now! Wow.
- MeanWeen 1y ago> And this is for a prototype plant where you would expect the need for more and top-qualified technicians. One would think, but that's not really the reality for the technicians. Amazon assuredly brought in some experienced techs from other facilities to help with launch, but most of the staff are just locals. > At the Shreveport facility, more than 160 people work as robotics technicians, and they make at least $24.45 an hour. Most of Shreveport’s 2,000 employees are regular hourly workers, whose pay starts at $19.50 The associate pay sounds right, but the average starting pay for robotics technicians is in the low-mid 30s. The $24.45 figure is for apprentices, who are not a large part of any maintenance cohort. Source: Amazon robotics technician.
- xnx 1y agoSears (catalog) -> Walmart (mega stores) -> Amazon (online) The next disruption (possibly by Amazon) will be in getting products more directly from the point of manufacture to the point of use. Warehouses are an oversized cache for physical goods.
- nashashmi 1y agoMaybe the hype is equivalent to self driving cars.
- nyc_data_geek 1y agoAnd this is why they don't care how many people they fire. The intention was always to automate the warehouses, and as long as they do it before they exhaust the workforce, turnover doesn't matter.
- cebert 1y agoI know we’re living through turbulent times with a lot of disruption. I’m struggling to decide whether to keep my retirement investments in equities or move to something more stable. While AI and robotic automation clearly benefit corporate bottom lines, fewer people will have jobs. Who will be buying the products and services these companies sell?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]