AMAZON will have as many robots working in UK warehouses as humans within three years, an expert warns.
It could mean huge job losses at the delivery giant, which already has a million bots operating worldwide.
3
3
The firm is on the cusp of having more machines than people in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Dr Amir Aly, from the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems at the University of Plymouth, claims Amazon’s planned £40billion UK investment by 2028 means a mass robot rollout.
He said: “The scale of investment indicates there will be a 1:1 ratio of humans to robots in the UK in the next one to three years.
“It’s the money and technology advances that talk in the end.”
He argued the size of the cash injection and the Government’s enthusiasm hints at an agreement to provide a “friendly regulatory environment”.
Dr Sethu Vijayakumar, Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh, agreed jobs would be lost in the “temporary friction” robotics revolution.
He added: “There will never be as many jobs once warehouses are automated.”
Amazon denies this, pointing to increased hiring over the past decade to about 70,000 people in the UK — up from 7,800.
Xavier Van Chau, from Amazon’s robotics team, said rather than replacing workers, the company has trained 700,000 robot operators.
He insisted that the business aims to relieve workers of menial tasks, “adding value, not replacing humans”.
3
