Source: Ars Technica
Amazon has deployed over one million warehouse robots since 2012, yet maintains 1.5 million human employees—making it the world's second-largest corporate employer. Robots handle specific repetitive tasks (sorting, moving pallets) while humans manage exceptions, quality control, and the unpredictable chaos of fulfillment centers. Automation has expanded margins and throughput—more packages moved per dollar of total labor cost—rather than triggering the labor collapse some predicted. The shift reframes the automation debate from "robots replace workers" to "robots change what work looks like."