Amazon Robot Dead Ahead
-By Griffin Addison | [email protected]
Amazon has been investing heavily in robotics, which seems to be an arms race with Google. Though Amazon’s fleet is already being put to work in the company’s ware houses, in order to reduce cycle time. At the beginning of the year, the company had over 15000 robots working in 10 US fulfillment centers. The robots can lift up to 750 pounds and have helped to reduce cycle time by 75%.
Amazon’s robotic army continues to grow, especially with drones being on the verge of home delivery. While the company makes little profit, it sure makes a ton of revenue and spends all of its income on new technology to grow the business. It’s interesting to see how Amazon’s centers are becoming automated and how their robots grow smarter over time. The company has its hands in many different markets and can afford to do this as it continues to boast 30%+ revenue growth.
Luckily, they haven’t replaced all humans yet. Amazon still had to hire 80 thousand temporary workers to help fulfill orders for the holiday season. Furthermore the company is looking to hire 50,000 for its new headquarters. In the most recent quarter, amazon grew its cloud business over 42% and overall revenue grew 33%, which pushed the stocks to all time highs.
Amazon is also a leader in artificial intelligence which it already uses to show products to customers on it main retail web site. The company has powerful AI computing capabilities on its cloud platform, and can use AI now to make its physical robots even smarter and more efficient. CEO Jeff Bezos isn't backing down from his plans to literally dominate the world of retail through Amazon.