Amazon's Robot Army Tops 1 Million; Automation Nears Scale of Human Workforce

TradingKey - According to recent reports, Amazon(AMZN), the second-largest private employer in the United States, has achieved a milestone in robot deployment that will soon see robots outnumbering human employees.

On Monday, Amazon announced that the total number of robots deployed across its global operating network had surpassed one million, with the millionth robot recently delivered to a fulfillment center in Tokyo, Japan.

The company's stock price closed at $220.46 on Tuesday, marking a historical high over the past month. TradingKey data shows the average target price set by Wall Street analysts is $242.538, with all 73 analysts maintaining either "Hold" or "Buy" ratings.

(Source: TradingKey)

Amazon's current total workforce is approximately 1.56 million employees (with over half employed in warehouses), and the ratio of robots to human workers has approached 1:1.56. If the 2024 robot deployment pace of 750,000 units per year and the existing workforce scale of 1.56 million employees are maintained, the number of robots is projected to surpass human workers within the next 12 to 18 months.

CEO Andy Jassy emphasized during an earnings call that structural reductions in labor costs will be achieved through deep integration of AI and robotics over the next three years.

Currently, 75% of Amazon's global delivery operations have fully integrated robotic processes covering picking, sorting, packaging, and handling. The density of robots in new-generation logistics centers is ten times higher than in traditional warehouses, reducing the average number of employees per facility to just 670 — a new low for the past sixteen years. Since 2015, the average number of packages handled per employee has increased from 175 to 3,870 annually — a staggering 22-fold efficiency improvement.