Key Takeaways
- Amazon could replace over 600,000 jobs with robots by 2030
- Internal documents reveal plans to automate 75% of company operations
- Projected savings of $12.6 billion between 2025-2027
- Company plans strategic language to manage public perception
Amazon is accelerating its deployment of robotics across facilities, a strategy that may displace more than 600,000 workers by 2030, according to leaked internal documents obtained by The New York Times.
The company also projects it will sell twice as many goods during this period while dramatically reducing its workforce through automation.
Massive Automation Plans
Internal documents indicate Amazon’s robotics team aims to automate 75% of company operations. This automation would prevent the hiring of approximately 160,000 U.S. employees that would otherwise have been needed by 2027.
The workforce reduction is expected to generate substantial cost savings of around $12.6 billion between 2025 and 2027.
Managing Public Perception
The leaked documents also reveal Amazon’s strategy to pre-empt potential backlash from the automation push. The company plans to use terms like “advanced technology” or “cobot” instead of more direct terminology like “AI” and “automation.”
An Amazon spokesperson responded to the revelations, stating that the documents presented an “incomplete picture” and denied that the company avoids specific terms when discussing robotics.
