Robots alone can’t save Amazon’s labour woes

ID 117615202 © Korn Vitthayanukarun | Dreamstime.com

Yesterday’s Amazon Prime day brought into focus the pressure that Amazon is feeling as its attempts to fulfil all those orders placed trough its platform for products on sale. There have been widespread reports of the huge amount of stress that the company’s warehouse workforce has found itself under – which ironically have come at the same time as Amazon has hit the headlines with its investments in automation. The truth, according to this Wired article, is likely to be combination of the two: “We’re not giving these workers enough credit for how smart and versatile and dexterous they are, and we’re forgetting just how inept robots still are. Yes, Amazon is scrambling to automate its warehouses to boost its efficiency. But in so doing, it’s creating a new human-robot hybrid workforce, which means it would do well to keep these people happy.”