Amazon's delivery, logistics get an AI boost

Amazon wants customers to know that artificial intelligence is not just for writing college essays.

In a series of announcements Wednesday, Amazon demonstrated how stockroom robots, delivery people and its sprawling warehouses will all benefit from a hefty dose of artificial intelligence, speeding packages to customer doorsteps.

The company said it is forming a new group at its Lab126 device unit focused on creating warehouse robots that will perform multiple tasks when prompted, a significant advance over today’s robots that typically are designed for a singular job.

Using so-called agentic AI, these robots will be able to unload trailers and then retrieve parts for repairs, according to Amazon.

"For our customers, it's, of course, faster delivery," said the unit's leader, Yesh Dattatreya, a robotics scientist, at an event at Amazon's Silicon Valley Lab126 hardware device lab. He said the robots could be critical during times of heavy demand, like around the holidays, for things like lifting heavy objects in confined spaces.

The new AI would also help the company minimize waste and cut carbon emissions, Amazon said.

Agentic AI has become one of the hot investment areas with technologists promising software that can make decisions and act upon them without any additional input from users. Such software is meant to help automate everyday tasks like scheduling.

“We’re creating systems that can hear, understand and act on natural language commands, turning warehouse robots into flexible, multi-talented assistants,” Amazon said in a statement prior to the lab event.

Dattatreya said decisions like what the robots would look like, how many would be deployed or when had yet to be determined.

NAVIGATING OBSTACLES AT DELIVERY POINTS

Amazon is also using generative AI to create more advanced maps for its delivery drivers, so that they can more efficiently deliver packages. The specialized AI will provide Amazon fine detail on building shapes, as well as obstacles and anything else they may need to navigate for a package drop-off.

“This innovation is making it easier for Amazon drivers to find the right delivery spot, especially in tricky places like big office complexes,” Amazon said.

That technology could be critical to specialized eyeglasses Amazon is developing for delivery drivers that Reuters reported exclusively last year. The company hopes to outfit drivers with screen-embedded glasses that free their hands from GPS devices and give them turn-by-turn directions while driving, as well as while carrying packages at their destination.

Viraj Chatterjee, a vice president in Amazon's Geospatial unit, said in an interview the technology could potentially be used in the eyeglasses, but that the hardware was far from being perfected. It marked Amazon's first public acknowledgement of the eyeglass project.

He said delivery drivers in the U.S. were already using the maps daily. The software has been particularly useful for large apartment complexes and housing developments, he said.

Chatterjee said Amazon's delivery people, who are largely contractors, are not required to use the software. Some gig companies have faced legal challenges over whether they are asserting too much control over their contracted workers through mapping and other software.

Amazon also said AI will help it more efficiently predict what products customers will need and where to improve its same day delivery operations, with the software considering factors such as price, convenience, weather and sales events, like Prime Day.

"It allows us to sell a different set of books in Boston than we would in Boise, and cater to different tastes really, really efficiently across the communities that we serve," said Nathan Smith, director of demand forecasting for Amazon's supply chain optimization technologies unit.