As Amazon Embraces More Robots, Workers Take New Roles

While today almost all renowned companies have embraced Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled robots for productivity purposes, but the one company that has been at the forefront of this crusade is Amazon. The Seattle based e-commerce giant has lapped up the robotic revolution like no other company has done and this apparently has augured well for the company.

But Amazon’s thumping success in AI has meant that its existing employees are now forced to do new roles within the organization. Take for instance Nissa Scott, 21, who was employed at Amazon’s warehouse in southern New Jersey last year. Her job was to stack plastic bins over ottomans and simultaneously shift them to desired places. This job now has been taken over by a robot, while scot now merely supervises his new robotic friend.

Scott actually is one of the thousands of workers across Amazon’s warehouses compelled to do babysitting for their newly hired counterparts. While danger to entry-level warehouse jobs may not cause so much havoc, but will be equally naïve for us to rule out similar danger to senior level jobs once the more advanced robots are introduced. This impending danger is already causing lot of anxious moments among AI’s critics and government, who fear mass job losses in future.

Although as of now these speculative fears only hog minimal space in the popular media, but critics point out that the fear of ‘robots’ is for real. However, for big companies like Amazon embracing sophisticated robot is a natural solution to fill up the efficiency gap left behind by the human counterparts. Many experts feel that without this swap deal it would have been difficult for the e-commerce giant to drastically improve its delivery system. In other words, today if Amazon is able to do millions of single day delivery every day, it is partly because of robots.

Amazon openly embracing robots has surely invited curious scrutiny, but never stern criticisms. Partly because the Seattle based company never stopped hiring warehouse employees, whose numbers have steadily increased over the years. The e-commerce juggernaut can also cite the recent survey conducted by IT giant Capgemini, which rubbished the conventional notion that AI is stealing human jobs.

But AI’s critics continue to remain relentless in their pursuit, claiming that robots will bring dramatic changes in job employability in near future. And these changes won’t be a very pleasant. Critics depict a future where Drawin’s famous rule of survival of the fittest will be in full display, with employees successfully adapting to AI enabled changes will survive and those who don’t will perish.