Name: Amazon plans to replace 600,000 warehouse jobs with AI
Uploaded: 2025-10-23T19:14:03.852Z
Duration: 4 min 8 s
Description: As Amazon moves to automate hundreds of thousands of warehouse roles by 2033, AI expert Darren Kimura discusses how artificial intelligence will reshape manufacturing, customer service, and the future of deskless work.

As Amazon moves to automate hundreds of thousands of warehouse roles by 2033, AI expert Darren Kimura discusses how artificial intelligence will reshape manufacturing, customer service, and the future of deskless work.

Amazon has announced plans to use artificial intelligence and robotics to automate warehouse operations, which could affect up to 600,000 roles by 2033. However, experts clarify that these are not current job cuts but rather positions that may not be created as the company grows and automates more tasks.

The move is part of a broader trend among large companies to increase automation, particularly for repetitive and physically demanding tasks. While AI is expected to handle many routine jobs, human workers will still be needed for supervisory roles, maintenance, and complex problem-solving. Experts recommend that workers upskill in areas such as robotics, software, and AI to remain competitive in the evolving workforce.

Amazon plans to replace 600,000 warehouse jobs with AI

Well, Amazon is planning to replace 600,000 warehouse jobs by the year 2033. Instead, they're going to use AI to help cover some of those roles. Joining us now to talk more about this topic is the CEO and president of AI Square, Darren Kimura. Thanks so much for your time. It's a pleasure to be here. So what are your thoughts on Amazon replacing 600,000 jobs with AI by the year 2033, and how could this impact the workforce going forward? Yeah. I mean, Amazon, like all major companies, are leaning into robotics and artificial intelligence. I think that headline in particular maybe is a little bit misleading because what they were talking about in that particular case is their current expectation to double their growth by 2033 and the amount of jobs that would have otherwise been used. And of course, now with the implementation of robotics and AI, those jobs that wouldn't have to be hired. So it's more of jobs not hired for the future. So with this new, I guess, inventions as AI continues to advance, what do you think that this will mean for the future of manufacturing, especially when it comes to some of those warehouse and deskless roles? Absolutely. The future is going to be more robotics and AI, for sure. I mean, robots don't stop, they don't call in sick, you know, they're working 24-7. So we as humans need to upskill ourselves and get into a situation where we're now being able to develop and maintain these robots, write software code, maintain sensors throughout the facilities that are out there. So this is our opportunity to up-level our own skills. If somebody is looking to up-level their skills, what are some of the ways that they should be doing that to kind of protect their job futures? Yeah, I mean, it could be as simple as watching TikTok shorts and YouTube videos on things like robotics and artificial intelligence, getting smarter on these systems. But then it could even be leaning even further into things like advanced education, going back to school, taking night classes, going for professional and advanced degrees, and everything AI. I think this is the future and it's our opportunity to do this. Well, clearly AI is not going anywhere, it's just going to continue to get bigger. How does AI maybe complement human work by making sure that things are more accurate? Absolutely. I think one of the advantages is for AI to be doing the repetitive tasks that humans had in the past done. You know, physical things, lifting things, moving things around facilities. Instead of humans walking miles throughout distribution centers, these can all be done by robots in the dark, for example. Humans, however, play a supervisory role. It's our responsibility to ensure that we have good security, safety, and ethics that go into the building of these robotic and artificial intelligence futures. Now, we've all picked up the phone and looking for customer service and we're like, I need to speak to a representative. We've all been there. So what are some of the potential risks and maybe even ethical considerations if companies decide to fully automate some of those customer interactions? Yeah, I definitely think those first-line interactions are going to be completely automated. You know, things like exactly as you described, you've got a product that you bought and you want to return. Those will probably be initially taken in by AI. But you're still going to always need humans in the loop to make decisions. Humans have empathy. Humans can relate to the end customer. Humans can take feedback from the end customer through the interaction and human creativity to understand what it is that the real problem is, to deduce, to problem-solve. When it comes to things that are linear, I think AI and robots can do an amazing job on that. And as I mentioned before, you know, they can work 24-7. But when it comes to complex problem-solving or relating to people, that's really inherently human. All right, Darren, thanks so much for your time as we're all preparing to see how our lives are going to be impacted by AI. Thanks again. Thank you.

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