Amazon unveils latest warehouse robot as tech giants do AI layoffs

Amazon has unveiled its latest warehouse robot that can take commands in conversational language, underscoring how AI-powered automation is advancing as companies continue to slash their corporate workforce in AI-driven efficiencies.

The tech giant’s next-generation Proteus is an autonomous mobile robot, which is designed to understand natural language commands from workers and transport items in warehouses. It was launched at the company’s Delivering the Future event in London on Thursday.

The original Proteus was first deployed in Amazon fulfillment centers in 2022 to assist workers, including transporting heavy carts weighing up to 400 kilograms. It’s currently used in 25 fulfillment centers in the U.S., with the latest version of the robot set to be rolled out in Europe in the first half of 2027.

Workers will be able to direct the new Proteus in plain language, without technical commands or a programming interface. It’s part of a broader push to expand the technology in Europe, with Amazon also committing to investing 10 billion euros ($11.6 billion) to modernize fulfillment operations in the region over the next few years.

Other robotics advancements include its first robot with a sense of touch, Vulcan, and a robotic tote handling system called STARK.

The announcement comes as Amazon continues to push ahead with AI-driven layoffs, including cutting 14,000 corporate workers in October as it looks to invest further in the technology. It said it’s laying off a further 16,000 workers in January to reduce layers and bureaucracy.

CEO Andy Jassy told staff last year that AI will result in a shrinking of Amazon’s workforce over the coming years.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy said in a memo to employees. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.”

Several tech giants, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM, were behind thousands of AI layoffs in 2025, with the technology responsible for over 50,000 layoffs in the U.S. during the year. More recently, Block, Oracle, and Meta were among the firms carrying out job cuts.

“Since we’ve invested in robotics, we’ve created hundreds of thousands of jobs,” Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics told CNBC on Thursday.

Investments in people, upskilling, and smart machines create jobs, Brady said, adding that Amazon is creating jobs at a scale not seen in the U.S. in the past 10 years.

Amazon’s Country Manager for the U.K. and Ireland, John Boumphrey, told CNBC that its robotics investment actually…