Leaked docs reveal Amazon plans to automate 75% of warehouse operations by 2033

Amazon unveiled new warehouse robotics and AI systems at its Delivering the Future event, but the company found itself defending against reports that it plans to automate 75% of operations by 2033. The disconnect highlights growing tensions between Amazon’s public messaging about human-robot collaboration and internal documents suggesting significant workforce reductions ahead.

What you should know: Amazon’s latest automation push centers on two key systems designed to transform warehouse operations.
• Blue Jay uses coordinated robotic arms to handle picking, stowing, and consolidating items, while Project Eluna serves as an AI-powered digital assistant for operations teams.
• Tye Brady, Amazon’s chief robotics technologist, positioned these as “AI at work” — systems that make jobs “safer, smarter, and more rewarding” by handling repetitive tasks and identifying safety issues.
• Brady emphasized that Amazon has created more U.S. jobs than any other company over the past decade and plans to hire 250,000 seasonal workers this year.

The big picture: Internal Amazon documents obtained by The New York Times paint a different story than the company’s public narrative about job creation.
• The documents reportedly show Amazon expects automation to “flatten Amazon’s hiring curve over the next 10 years,” potentially avoiding the need to hire more than 600,000 workers despite continued sales growth.
• Amazon’s highly automated Shreveport, Louisiana facility serves as a template, using about 1,000 robots and employing roughly 25% fewer workers than traditional methods would require.
• As more robots are added, the facility is expected to need about half as many workers for similar item volumes compared to previous warehouse designs.

What they’re saying: Brady pushed back against automation fears while carefully avoiding direct answers about workforce reduction projections.
• “The real headline is not about robots. The real headline is about people, and the future of work we’re building together,” Brady told reporters at the event.
• When pressed about potential workforce shrinkage, he called such projections “speculation” and said “there’s no such thing as 100 percent automation.”
• “People are much more than hands,” Brady said. “You perceive the environment. You understand the environment. You know when to put things together. Like, people got it going on. It’s not replacing a hand. That’s not the right way to think of it. It’s augmenting the human brain.”

Wall Street’s take: Morgan Stanley analysts treated the Times report as credible intelligence rather than speculation.
• The investment bank’s research note said Amazon’s reported plan to build around 40 next-generation robotic warehouses by 2027 was “in line with our estimated slope of robotics warehouse deployment.”
• Using the Times’ projection that Amazon expects to “avoid hiring 160,000+ U.S. warehouse employees by ’27,” Morgan Stanley recalculated potential savings could reach $10 billion annually.
• Previous Morgan Stanley models had estimated the robotics rollout could generate $2 billion to $4 billion in annual savings by 2027.

Behind the messaging: Amazon’s public communications strategy appears to follow internal guidance designed to control automation narratives.
• According to the Times, internal documents advised employees to avoid terms like “automation” and “A.I.” in favor of collaborative language such as “advanced technology” and “cobots.”
• Brady’s remarks at the event closely mirrored this approach, consistently framing robotics as augmentation rather than replacement.
• In interviews, Brady said he dislikes the term “artificial intelligence” altogether, preferring to call the technology simply “machines” because “intelligence is ours” and “intelligence is very much a human thing.”