Amazon now runs more than 1 million robots in its warehouses around the clock, helping make tens of millions of same-day and one-day package deliveries possible, according to Ars Technica. The company is also the second-largest corporate employer in the world, with more than 1.5 million full-time and part-time human workers, according to its 2025 annual report.
Amazon executives say the robots ease the burden on human staff by taking on fulfillment tasks that carry the greatest risk of physical fatigue and injury. But labor advocacy groups and independent researchers say AI-driven warehouse automation is not all upside for the people working alongside robots.
Brian Greenwood, professor of business at George Mason University, told Ars that most automation over the past century moved high-risk tasks away from workers. "The rise of collaborative robots really changes that dynamic for two reasons: one is that it is physically proximate, and two, the robot has the ability to dictate the pace of work," he said.
Amazon is poised to significantly grow its robotic workforce, with plans to establish new factories that will produce increasingly capable robot workers. The report highlights a central tension in the company's strategy: it is simultaneously one of the world's biggest robotics operators and one of its biggest employers. How that balance evolves will help determine whether collaborative automation relieves physical strain or simply transfers pressure to the humans who share the warehouse floor with machines.