For many years, Amazon has defined what modern labor looks like. Now it’s preparing to redefine what’s left of it.
According to internal documents obtained by The New York Times, Amazon executives have drawn up plans to replace more than half a million jobs with robots by 2033—effectively automating 75 percent of the company’s operations. The initiative, known internally as “flattening the hiring curve,” aims to double product throughput without expanding the human workforce.
It’s a move that could save roughly 30 cents per item shipped, but it also signals a deeper shift: one of America’s largest employers is turning from a job engine into a machine economy prototype.
The Shreveport Template
At the heart of this transition lies a testbed in Shreveport, Louisiana—a gleaming, sensor-laden warehouse described as a “template for the future.” There, a thousand robots hum through aisles once staffed by people. Since opening last year, the site has already cut labor needs by 25 percent, and new automation phases are expected to halve the remaining headcount.
Amazon plans to replicate the Shreveport design in 40 additional fulfillment centers by 2027, including a newly built mega-facility in Virginia Beach and a retrofit in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Internal projections show that the Georgia site will soon process 10 percent more volume with 1,200 fewer workers—a reduction achieved not through layoffs, but through attrition and an increasingly temporary workforce.
Controlling the Narrative
A Corporate Strategy Wrapped in Euphemism
The internal playbook reveals that Amazon’s leadership is acutely aware of the social and political fallout that large-scale automation could cause. Documents advise executives to avoid words like “robot” or “A.I.”, substituting softer terms such as “advanced technology” or “cobots” (collaborative robots).
The company has also discussed “controlling the narrative” in communities likely to lose jobs by emphasizing new technical roles, sponsoring parades, and participating in charity events like Toys for Tots.
An Amazon spokesperson called the documents “incomplete,” saying they reflect one group’s perspective, not official hiring policy. Yet the underlying message is unmistakable: the company is planning for a post-human logistics economy—and the PR fallout that will accompany it.
From Job Creator to Job Replacer
Since 2018, Amazon’s U.S. workforce has tripled to nearly 1.2 million, driven by pandemic-era e-commerce demand. But internally, the automation team estimates that it can avoid hiring more than 600,000 additional workers over the next decade.
Economist Daron Acemoglu of MIT, who won the Nobel Prize in 2024 for his work on automation and inequality, put it bluntly:
“Once Amazon works out how to do this profitably, it will spread to others, too. One of the biggest employers in the United States will become a net job destroyer, not a net job creator.”
The ripple effects could reshape blue-collar America. Amazon pioneered the digital warehouse job as a new form of industrial employment; now it may become the blueprint for its own obsolescence.
The Economics of Efficiency
In 2012, Amazon’s $775 million acquisition of robotics firm Kiva Systems set the foundation for its current automation empire. Those early orange “puck” robots eliminated miles of human walking inside warehouses. Today, Amazon operates over one million robots globally, controlled by a modular software ecosystem designed to scale like Lego bricks.
The company’s internal forecasts estimate automation will generate $12.6 billion in savings from 2025 to 2027—a near-term return on an estimated $10 billion investment. CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded Jeff Bezos in 2021, has made operational efficiency his mandate: a transition from growth at all costs to profit through precision.
The Human Cost
In Shreveport, 160 technicians now maintain the robot fleet, earning around $24.45 per hour—higher than the base wage of $19.50 for traditional warehouse roles. The company touts these new “mechatronics” jobs as pathways to the future, supported by an internal apprenticeship program that’s trained nearly 5,000 workers since 2019.
But the math doesn’t balance cleanly. Every technician role created replaces several entry-level positions that once served as accessible on-ramps for working-class Americans..
Managing the Transition
Executives like Udit Madan, Amazon’s global operations chief, frame automation as evolution, not erasure:
“That you have efficiency in one part of the business doesn’t tell the whole story,” he said. “We’re opening new depots, expanding in rural areas, creating new kinds of jobs.”
Yet on the ground, the experience looks different. In Stone Mountain, a local job seeker described scouring Amazon’s listings daily, using automated refresh tools to catch openings—none have appeared in months. Amazon isn’t firing; it simply isn’t hiring.
Final Thoughts
Amazon has always been a mirror for the modern economy—reflecting our appetite for speed, convenience, and efficiency at scale. Now it’s becoming a mirror for something else: the silent automation of the American workforce.
If the Shreveport model succeeds, it won’t stay inside Amazon. Walmart, UPS, and every logistics giant watching from the sidelines will see proof that robots don’t strike, don’t sleep, and don’t quit.
The world’s largest storefront is quietly rewriting the social contract—one robot at a time.