Amazon reportedly hopes to replace 600,000 US workers with robots

Amazon is reportedly leaning toward automation plans that would enable the company to avoid hiring more than half a million American workers. Citing interviews and internal strategy documents, New York Times Amazon reportedly hopes its robots will replace more than 600,000 jobs it would otherwise have to staff in the US by 2033, though it estimates it will sell about twice as many products over that period.

Reports indicate that documents show that Amazon’s robotics team is working to automate 75% of the company’s entire operations, and is expected to eliminate 160,000 American jobs that would have been needed by 2027. This would save about 30 cents on each item that Amazon stores and delivers to customers, and the automation efforts are expected to save the company $12.6 billion from 2025 to 2027.

Amazon has considered steps to improve its image as a “good corporate citizen” in preparation for expected backlash over job losses, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. new york times, It says the company has considered getting involved in community projects and avoiding terms like “automation” and “artificial intelligence.” Instead, more ambiguous terms such as “high technology” have been explored, and the term “robot” is used for robots that work alongside humans.

In a statement to New York TimesAmazon said the leaked documents were incomplete and did not represent the company’s overall hiring strategy, and that executives were not being instructed to avoid using certain terms when referring to robots. We’ve also reached out to Amazon for comment.

“No one has the same incentive as Amazon to find a way to automate,” said Darun Acemoglu, who won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences last year. “Once they figure out how to do it profitably, it will spread to others as well.” New York Times. Adding that if Amazon achieves its automation goal, “one of the largest employers in the United States will become a net destroyer of jobs, not a net creator of jobs.”