Amazon is increasingly using robotics in its fulfillment centers to perform repetitive tasks, such as moving heavy packages.
Nathan Steck | Getty Images News | Getty Images
amazon An executive told CNBC that the company is focusing on using artificial intelligence to speed up delivery — by minimizing the distance between its products and customers.
Stefano Perego, Amazon’s vice president of customer fulfillment and global operations services for North America and Europe, outlined how the company is using artificial intelligence in logistics.
One such area, Perego said, is transportation, such as mapping and planning routes while taking into account variables such as weather.
Another area is where customers search for products on Amazon to help them find the right item.
But one of Amazon’s current priorities is using artificial intelligence to determine where to place inventory.
“I think one of the key areas that we think is reducing service costs is inventory arrangements,” Perego said.
“So by now, I’m pretty sure you’re familiar with the vast selection we offer our customers. Imagine how complex the problem of deciding where to put that unit of inventory is. And placing it in such a way that we reduce the distance to meet the needs of our customers, we Increased delivery speed.”
Amazon has been focusing on what it calls “regionalization” efforts, where products are shipped to customers from warehouses closest to them rather than from other parts of the country.
But doing so requires technology that can analyze data and patterns to predict which products and where are in demand.
This is where artificial intelligence comes in. If the product is closer to the customer, Amazon will be able to do same-day or next-day delivery, as it offers with its Prime subscription service.
Those efforts are going well, Perego said. In the U.S., more than 74 percent of products ordered by customers now come from fulfillment centers in their region, according to Amazon.
Robotics Focus
Amazon is also using robotics in its fulfillment centers to help with repetitive tasks, such as moving heavy packages.
The company says 75 percent of Amazon customer orders are partially handled by robots.
There is debate about how robotics and artificial intelligence, such as the ChatGPT AI chatbot developed by startup OpenAI, will affect work. A Goldman Sachs report earlier this year suggested there could be “significant disruption” to the global labor market, with automation affecting 300 million jobs.
Perego described the automation as “collaborative robots,” underscoring how Amazon sees humans and technology working together.
“I think what’s happening is really a shift in the types of jobs,” Perego said.
When automation and artificial intelligence become more pervasive, they will change, not eliminate, the jobs workers perform, the executive said.
“Ultimately, the type of work that employees will be asked to do in fulfillment centers will increasingly be a high-judgment type of work,” Perego said. “Heavy and repetitive tasks will be done by robotics. That’s good. It’s a transformation rather than a replacement.”