“An employee tells it what needs to be done, and the robot figures out the priority, the route, and the timing,” said Amazon this week of the newest generation of its Proteus robot. These yellow-and -black bots look a bit like oversized Roombas gliding along Amazon warehouse floors.
Amazon first introduced Proteus in 2022 as its “first fully autonomous mobile robot.” This new generation of the robot was revealed in a press release detailing Amazon’s investment equivalent to approximately $11.5 billion into innovation with a focus on its European operations network.
Previously, the employees Proteus needed to use technical commands and or programming interfaces to instruct the robot. Now, they can use “plain, conversational text-based prompts,” Amazon said. Proteus can also operate anywhere, not just in dock areas.
“Like its predecessor, the new Proteus is designed to take on physically demanding tasks, moving heavy carts and covering long distances,” said a Thursday article from Amazon. “This means employees can focus on work like managing inventory flow and ensuring quality control across Amazon's fulfillment network.”
As of this week, the new Proteus was being piloted in Amazon’s labs. It is expected to be deployed in Europe planned for the first half of next year.
In addition to Proteus, Amazon said its recent investments include expanded use of Vulcan, its first robot with a sense of touch, and STARK, “a new robotic system that works alongside employees to pick full totes from conveyors and place them on carts.” STARK was piloted in Barcelona, Spain, and Amazon plans to expanded across 15 sites in Europe by next year.
“These investments reflect Amazon's broader push to use AI and robotics to support its workforce by taking on repetitive and physically demanding tasks so employees can focus on higher-skilled roles while customers get their orders faster,” said Amazon.
Amazon’s investments into artificial intelligence and automation have been met with some pushback, especially when those investments come at the same time as job cuts. Audacy reported last summer that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy hinted that AI investment would come with job cuts and by October the company said it was reducing its workforce.
According to this week’s press release, Amazon plans to grow its European fulfillment center workforce by 25,000 over the coming years with its sizeable investment. It said it plans to create more jobs across the region and invest in the long-term careers if its employees.
Another press release from this week covered Amazon’s $1 billion investment in employee upskilling through the Career Choice program by 2030. More than 300,000 employees have already participated in the program focused on high-growth careers in cybersecurity, software development, logistics, renewable energy, and mechatronics. It is open to employees in the U.S. and 13 other countries.
