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Amid a rapidly evolving technological landscape, one of the nation’s biggest companies may be poised to replace a huge chunk of its human employees with robots, signaling what may be the beginning stages of a workforce revolution.
According to internal documents reviewed by The New York Times, Amazon may be planning to automate up to 75 percent of its operations, which would displace more than 600,000 human workers by 2033.
The outlet reported that, based on its review of these documents, Amazon executives are also hoping to avoid hiring at least 160,000 more workers by 2027 with this strategy.
This news may seem shocking to some, but with the rapid development of AI technology and its integration into advanced robotics, it’s no surprise that the American workforce is due for some serious changes.
According to Nexford University, AI tools may replace what amounts to 300 million full-time jobs by 2030, based on a report from Goldman Sachs. Further, the McKinsey Global Institute has also reported that by the same year, 14 percent of global employees will likely need to change their careers to adapt to robotics and AI developments.
Per the NYT report, Amazon has already begun automating many of its facilities in places like Atlanta and Louisiana – replacing staff with thousands of robots and therefore increasing its item processing speed and profit margin.
Amazon’s reported move to invest heavily in robots comes just months into President Donald Trump’s second term in office. This administration has heavily supported AI development and secured billions of dollars in commitments from tech companies to innovate and capitalize on this new technology.
“The United States is in a race to achieve global dominance in artificial intelligence,” according to the White House’s AI Action Plan. “Whoever has the largest AI ecosystem will set the global standards and reap broad economic and security benefits. Under President Trump, our Nation will win, ushering in a new Golden Age of innovation, human flourishing, and technological achievement for the American people.”
