If You Like Amazon’s Blazing-Fast Deliveries, Thank Artificial Intelligence

If you were like millions of other shoppers, you spent at least part of yesterday buying stuff online.

It was one of Amazon’s biggest days of the year … and that’s really saying something for the massive retailer. But the company keeps getting products out of warehouses, onto trucks, and to consumers at speeds that almost defy belief.

And AI has a lot to do with it.

Rise of the robots

Amazon engineers spent a lot of time getting ready for the shopping rush, particularly within its Robotics Research and Development Center.

At one facility near Phoenix, the automation and integration of AI is reaping serious benefits. Within 11 minutes of a shopper buying a product, robots are already processing the order.

That’s about an hour faster than at other facilities and represents the quickest turnaround time in company history.

But AI does a lot more than search warehouses for products. Here are some common applications:

• Calculating the most efficient routes for drivers using real-time weather and traffic info
• Forecasting demand for millions of products and predicting where they’ll likely be shipped
• Checking boxes for signs of damage before they are loaded up to be delivered

Here to stay

AI capabilities and demand for quick shipping are both increasing, which means that this marriage between robots and human workers across the company isn’t going to end in a divorce anytime soon.

Amazon Robotics Chief Technologist Ty Brady explained: “AI will touch just about every piece of our supply chain.”

But he tried to paint an optimistic portrait for those who are afraid that the proliferation of robots will cost humans their jobs.

With hundreds of new positions related to robotics, Brady said Amazon is creating “a beautiful ballet of people and machines working together in order to do a job.”

Chris Agee November 28th, 2023

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