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The Journal.

How 1 Million Robots Are Taking Over Amazon Warehouses

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

Daily News, Business News, News

4.25.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Amazon warehouses are more automated than ever. The company, a key bellwether for the U.S. labor market, now has over a million robots packing and shipping goods in its fulfillment centers. While some employees are finding ways to transition into higher-paying technical roles that manage the robots, the company’s CEO Andy Jassy has said it plans to cut the size of its overall workforce. Sebastian Herrera explains Amazon’s vision for the warehouse of the future. Jessica Mendoza hosts. Further Listening: - AI Is Coming for Entry-Level Jobs.  - The Battle to Be the King of Retail: Walmart vs. Amazon   Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

When you step inside Amazon's warehouse in Shreveport, Louisiana, it looks pretty normal.

0:11.6

At first.

0:14.2

You have your offices, you have people walking around, you have security.

0:18.4

But as you get up to floor two to five, you really start to hear the buzz of machinery.

0:27.0

You can imagine the noises of the zh-z-jou-j-j-j-j-j-j-j---- Right.

0:34.4

Those sort of noises.

0:37.1

That's our colleague Sebastian Herrera,

0:39.3

describing Amazon's next-generation fulfillment center.

0:43.6

The Shreveport complex is five stories high.

0:47.2

Inside, robots zip across the floor like giant pucks.

0:51.0

And robotic arms lift, sort, and pack with eerie precision.

0:55.3

There's a lot of whirring, a lot of metallic clangs.

0:59.5

There are different wheeled droids that are in the facility.

1:02.8

While you said the word droids, and I immediately was like, as in Star Wars, like, beep-who-peep,

1:07.4

they're, like, buzzing around.

1:09.0

That's literally happening at this warehouse of the future.

1:12.8

Here, robots do most of the work.

1:15.4

And that's the direction Amazon, the second largest private employer in the U.S., is headed towards.

1:23.1

In fact, just recently, the company reached a major milestone.

1:27.4

They just crossed the one million robot line at their facilities.

1:31.3

And that's really significant because Amazon has reached a turning point with robotics,

1:37.3

where soon they will have more robots than they do humans.

...

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