In a move that should surprise absolutely no one who’s been paying attention, leaked internal documents suggest Amazon has a rather ambitious goal: automate 75% of its warehouse operations and potentially avoid hiring over 600,000 workers by 2033. The documents, first reported by The New York Times, outline a strategy to “flatten Amazon’s hiring curve” over the next decade, even as the company expects its sales to double. This isn’t some far-off sci-fi premise; the e-commerce giant already has over a million robots zipping around its facilities.
The plan appears to be less about firing current employees and more about not hiring their future colleagues, letting attrition and automation handle the workforce reduction. The documents also reveal a certain… sensitivity to public perception. The company has reportedly considered PR strategies to position itself as a “good corporate citizen” by participating in community events and has even mulled over using softer terms like “cobot” or “advanced technology” instead of the more alarming “AI” and “automation.” An Amazon spokesperson has stated the leaked documents are “incomplete” and don’t reflect the company’s overall hiring strategy.
Why is this important?
This isn’t just about Amazon saving 30 cents on every package shipped. It’s a massive, real-world test case for the future of labor in the age of AI and robotics. As the second-largest private employer in the U.S., Amazon’s automation playbook will inevitably be copied by competitors, accelerating a seismic shift in logistics and blue-collar work. The very jobs often criticized for being physically demanding are logically the first to be automated, creating a classic “be careful what you wish for” scenario. While Amazon claims this frees up humans for more skilled roles like robot maintenance, the sheer scale of the displacement numbers raises critical questions about whether enough of those new, higher-skilled jobs can be created. And, of course, it all hinges on the flawless execution of their tech—one good AWS outage could bring the entire robotic workforce to a grinding, silent halt.
