Amazon’s growing reliance on automation could see its US workforce shrink dramatically over the next two years, according to an internal memo first reported by The New York Times.
The memo suggests the e-commerce giant’s ongoing rollout of robots across its fulfilment and logistics operations could enable it to replace more than 500,000 US employees while also avoiding the need to hire an additional 160,000 workers by 2027.
The company currently employs around 1.2 million people in the US.
According to the report, Amazon executives believe referring to its machines as “cobots” — short for “collaborative robots” — could help make the shift toward greater automation more publicly acceptable.
The leaked document also reportedly outlines a long-term goal of automating 75% of corporate operations using robotics.
Amazon has strongly denied that such figures reflect official company plans. “Leaked documents often paint an incomplete and misleading picture of our plans, and that’s the case here,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“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.”
Despite the reports, Amazon continues to hire seasonal workers, announcing plans to bring on 250,000 temporary employees for the 2025 holiday season.
The company has, however, gradually reduced staffing across several divisions since 2023, including the layoff of around 200 employees from its North America stores group in January 2025.
While Amazon disputes the suggestion of widespread job cuts, its investment in robotics and AI automation is accelerating.
In a June 2025 message to employees, company CEO Andy Jassy acknowledged that the company’s adoption of generative and agentic AI would reshape its workforce.
“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said.
“It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”
Earlier this year, Amazon announced the deployment of its one-millionth corporate robot at a fulfilment centre in Japan, joining a network of over 300 global facilities.
Amazon has also unveiled a new generative AI foundation model called DeepFleet, designed to improve coordination among its robotic fleet.
The company claims the technology will optimise robot travel paths, reduce congestion in fulfilment centres, and boost delivery speeds by up to 10%.
Amazon’s robotics portfolio includes advanced models such as Vulcan, which mimics human touch, and Digit, a bipedal robot developed by Agility Robotics that can walk, grasp, and carry objects.
The company is also testing humanoid delivery robots from Chinese firm Unitree, designed to transport parcels from Amazon’s electric delivery vans directly to customers’ doors.
“This is just the beginning,” said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, in a June 2025 blog post. “As DeepFleet learns from more data, it will continue to get smarter — driving deeper efficiencies, unlocking more selection closer to customers, and reimagining what’s possible in robotic logistics.”
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