The worldās largest manufacturer of robots is a company you have probably heard of. As of last year, Amazon had installed more than 750,000 robots in its warehouses, and it is investing hundreds of millions of pounds on developing and building more. Many of these robots perform tasks that were once carried out by people, such as packing, sorting and labelling. Are we seeing the beginning of a new wave of automation replacing human workers across many industries?
To find out, I visited Amazonās Operations Innovation Lab, where itĀ develops and tests new robots. Located a stoneās throw from the Italian Alps in the town of Vercelli, theĀ robotic lab was opening to theĀ pressĀ and the public for the firstĀ time in an effort toĀ assuage fears about job losses.
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I had seen some of the robots thatĀ make up Amazonās packaging line in videos, but seeing their speedĀ and complexity up close was astounding. Snaking around a vast warehouse set up likeĀ an exhibition space, they wereĀ twisting and writhing in constant motion.
Rubber suction cups guided by computer vision AI placed packages on conveyor belts, while a robotic arm the size of a double-decker busĀ fastened boxes onto pallets. Occupying a central location was Amazonās shiny new robot it calls theĀ Universal Robotic Labeller (URL), a spider-like device that can print and stick a label to any package, regardless of shape or size.
, Amazonās director of global robotics, says thatĀ the URL will mean warehouse workers will no longer have to perform the repetitive motions of fixing labels to unusually shaped packages, freeing them up to work on other tasks like operating or maintaining the URL machine.
āThe important thing is that every time we develop the technology, weĀ also create a new training package for the employees to learnĀ new skills,ā says La Rovere.
But it is unclear whether creating new jobs and retraining staff can happen quickly enough to prevent job losses, says at the University of Oxford. While new jobs, like robot technicians and software engineers, were created when roles in the manufacturing industry were automated away, there is no guarantee that this will happen at a sufficient pace in the future, he says. āThere is no law of economics that suggests that those employment opportunities must counterbalance those jobs that areĀ being displaced,ā says Frey.
I heard from multiple Amazon employees at the event that the goalĀ is for the machines to work alongside humans. According to LaĀ Rovere, more than ā50,000 jobs have been enhanced by the use of robotics and technologyā, though heĀ didnāt go into specifics.
Amazon has over 1.5 million full-time and part-time employees, many of whom carry out tasks I sawĀ being performed by robots. IfĀ itsĀ Ā£600 million investment in robotic equipment isnāt going to putĀ some people out of work, it willĀ need a vast programme of retraining and legions of new jobs.
āAutomation is good, but itās an illusion to think that automation automatically means more employment opportunities and more interesting work for the peopleĀ affected by it,ā says Frey. āThat has certainly not been the historical experience.ā
Amazonās vision of a human-robot love-in is also hard to square with the companyās recent testing of humanoid robots in its warehouses. Last year, it created by firm Agility Robotics, in one of its Seattle warehouses. When I asked Sarah Rhoads, who oversees Amazonās global workplace safety, what role these robots might play in the near future, she said that they were āso new and emerging itās too early to speculate onā.
Even if Amazon doesnāt place humanoid robots at the centre of itsĀ automated vision, there is huge interest in them, not least from ex-Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Bezos has invested $100 million in Figure AI, aĀ company with the stated goal ofĀ bringing āa general purpose humanoid to lifeā.
Last week, robotics company Boston Dynamics also unveiled itsĀ sleek and nimble fully electric Atlas robot, a replacement for the previous hydraulic model. The company says it is ādesigned for real-world applicationsā, and will be first tested in Hyundaiās car factories.
The extent to which robotic technology will affect human jobs is highly uncertain, says at the London School of Economics, and it will take time for full automation to take place.
However, recent studies have estimated that repetitive, low-skilled work, as well as data collection and data processing tasks, will fall by 12 per cent as a share of all work by 2030 due to automation, he says.
Alex Wilkinsās trip was paid for by Amazon.
