IN one postAmazon highlighted Blue Jay, a robot it calls “an extra pair of hands that assists employees with tasks that require reaching and lifting,” and its Project Eluna agent-based artificial intelligence system, which “acts as an extra team member to help reduce cognitive load” while optimizing sorting to reduce bottlenecks.
Blue Jay can carry 75 percent of the types of items stocked in an Amazon store and is ultimately expected to become the “core technology” powering same-day delivery sites. The company says it developed Blue Jay in just over a year based on artificial intelligence, digital twins and data from robots already in utilize, creating a system that “coordinates multiple robotic arms to perform multiple tasks simultaneously, combining three separate robotic stations into one streamlined workspace that can be selected, stored and consolidated in one place.”
Amazon Robotics chief technologist Tye Brady said in a company post that: “The real headline isn’t about robots. It’s about people and the future of work we’re building together.” The blog post also echoed the spokesperson’s response to the Times report, stating that “no company has created more jobs in the U.S. over the past decade than Amazon” and touting plans to fill 250,000 positions during the holiday season.
Andy Jassy’s General Manager June letter to employees on the performance impact is a bit clearer. He wrote about generative AI, saying: “We will need fewer people doing some of the work that is currently being done and more people doing other types of work. It’s hard to know exactly where this will change over time, but we expect it will reduce our company’s total workforce over the next few years as we gain productivity gains from the widespread use of AI across the company.”
The Times the report suggests a similar plan for robotics and automation, citing Iasi’s efforts to lower e-commerce costs and showing examples of how its warehouse renovations are creating facilities that process more items with fewer workers who will increasingly focus on operating robots.