Amazon says that thanks to advances in AI, its next-generation warehouse robot can now be assigned tasks by employees “the way they’d communicate with a colleague.”
The company unveiled the latest version of its Proteus robot on Thursday at its Delivering the Future event in London.
Amazon first introduced Proteus back in 2022 as its first fully autonomous mobile robot. It was designed to operate in dock areas and fulfillment centers, carrying carts full of packages that could weigh nearly 400 kilograms (roughly 882 pounds) over long distances.
According to the company, the new Proteus will be able to work across more parts of Amazon’s facilities, anywhere items need to be moved, including transporting containers and delivery sites.
But the biggest upgrade is how employees communicate with it. Instead of using technical commands or a programming interface, workers will be able to assign Proteus tasks in plain conversational language.
“You tell it what needs to be done. It figures out the priority, the route, the timing,” said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, in a blog post. “It becomes your assistant for material movement.”
The new Proteus robots will eventually join the more than 1 million robots already working across Amazon’s fulfillment network. Still, the announcement undoubtedly raises concerns about Amazon using automation and AI to replace human workers. Amazon has downplayed those concerns in the past.
In October, The New York Times reported on leaked documents showing that Amazon’s automation team expected the company could avoid hiring more than 160,000 U.S. workers by 2027, which it would otherwise need. On top of that, Amazon’s robotics team reportedly has an ultimate goal of automating 75 percent of the company’s operations, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times.
Kelly Nantel, an Amazon spokesperson, told Gizmodo in an emailed statement at the time that the leaked documents painted an incomplete picture of the company’s plans.
“In this instance, the materials appear to reflect the perspective of just one team and don’t represent our overall hiring strategy across our various operations business lines – now or moving forward,” Nantel wrote.
Similarly, with its next-gen Proteus announcement, Amazon emphasized that the robot is part of a bigger €10 billion ($11.6 billion) investment to expand and modernize its fulfillment operations in Europe. That includes the expansion of the company’s first robot to have a sense of touch.
“As part of this investment, Amazon plans to grow its European fulfillment center workforce by 25,000 in the coming years, creating new jobs across the region,” Amazon said in its blog post.
As for the latest version of Proteus, it is currently being piloted in Amazon’s labs and is planned to be deployed in Europe in the first half of 2027.
