October 14, 2026
The fleet of robots working inside Amazon warehouses has exceeded the barrier of one million units, in an expansionary step that reignites discussions about the future of jobs and working conditions in the retail and logistics sector.
According to a report published by the “Ars Technica” website, “Amazon” currently has the largest fleet of operational robots in the world, at a time when the number of its human employees continues to exceed 1.5 million full- and part-time workers, according to its annual report for the year 2025.
In its operations, the company relies on mobile robots that transport shelves of goods to work stations, in addition to robotic arms that select, classify, and arrange packages inside shipping vehicles. Amazon is also developing advanced systems that rely on artificial intelligence to recognize millions of products and deal with new items that robots have not previously been trained to handle.
In a related context, the company plans to expand its fleet of robotic arms and establish new factories to produce them locally, with the aim of increasing warehouse efficiency and accelerating the pace of processing orders.
In terms of the work environment, a study published in the journal “ILR Review” in 2025 showed that warehouses equipped with robots recorded a 40% decrease in severe injuries compared to traditional warehouses, but in contrast, they witnessed a 77% increase in less serious injuries associated with stress and repetitive movements.
Researchers believe that the acceleration of the pace of work represents the main reason behind this paradox. The speed of robots in transporting goods ensures a continuous flow, while the human worker is required to keep up with this rapid rhythm, which reduces the heavy physical burden but doubles the pressures of working on other tasks.
Questions about the future of jobs
The existing controversy is not limited to occupational safety alone; In a report published in October 2025, the New York Times praised the existence of internal company documents indicating the possibility of reducing future employment needs by about 160,000 employees in the United States by 2027, and 600,000 workers by 2033. Although these numbers reflect expectations contained in internal documents and are not an official announcement of layoffs, they have raised widespread concerns.
For its part, Amazon confirms that the expansion of the use of robots contributes to the creation of new jobs in the engineering and maintenance sectors, noting that the continued growth of its business has contributed to providing additional job opportunities.
