Amazon has reached two major milestones in its robotics journey: deploying its millionth robot, in Japan, and launching DeepFleet, a powerful new generative AI foundation model that coordinates robot movements across its fulfillment network. DeepFleet functions like an intelligent traffic-management system, reducing robot travel time by 10% while enabling faster deliveries at lower costs. Built using Amazon’s extensive inventory movement data and AWS tools like SageMaker, this AI continuously improves over time.
Since beginning with a single robot type in 2012, Amazon now operates diverse robots like Hercules, which can lift and move up to 1,250 pounds of inventory, and Proteus, a fully autonomous mobile robot that safely navigates around employees. This technology transformation has also created more technical roles—Amazon’s next-generation fulfillment center in Shreveport, Louisiana, requires 30% more employees in maintenance, reliability, and engineering positions compared to traditional facilities.