Major move by America's biggest retailer spells job doom after chilling CEO warning
Robots are whirring through a 2.8 million-square-foot Amazon facility.
The company says the bots are here to help, not replace.
Amazon recently began shipping orders from its new $300 million robotics fulfillment center in Charlton, Massachusetts, the company confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The four-story facility houses cutting-edge tech, including hundreds of autonomous machines capable of lifting up to 1,500 pounds.
They work alongside more than 1,000 full-time employees to get books, electronics, and toys into delivery trucks.
Amazon staffers are 'working alongside robotics and other technology that assist our frontline employees as they deliver for our customers,' Amber Plunkett, a spokesperson for Amazon, told DailyMail.com.
'Ever since we introduced robotics to our facilities over a decade ago, we have added hundreds of thousands of people to Amazon's workforce.'
They're working at the e-commerce giant's $300 million robotics fulfillment center in Charlton, Massachusetts, helping humans get packages ready for deliveries.
It's the largest such facility in the state. Amazon expects it will generate around $65.5 million in local revenue.
But the rollout comes amid a wave of job security anxiety because of AI — and even Amazon's top brass admits the shift won't be painless.
'As we roll out more Generative AI and agents, it should change the way our work is done,' the company's CEO, Andy Jassy, said in an internal memo to his corporate staff.
'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.'
For their part, Amazon told DailyMail.com that it is training a future workforce for new positions that will 'help design, build, maintain, and work alongside our technology.'
The company didn't commit to maintaining current staffing levels.
Jassy's memo comes as dozens of iconic tech companies make huge slashes because of generative tech.
Microsoft is planning on cutting thousands of jobs to make deeper investments in its AI capacity.
Amazon said the new Massachusetts center comes after a $300 million investment - it believes the high-tech facility will bring millions in regional revenue
Amazon's CEO, Andy Jassy, wrote a note to corporate staff, warning that some of their jobs might be made redundant with AI
Amazon said it has been retraining workers to prepare them for the advanced-tech future
Intel, the flagging computer chip producer, said it will cut 15 to 20 percent of its workforce.
Walmart, America's biggest private employer, slashed 1,500 jobs, including tech-related positions.
Even consumer brands like Lululemon and Procter & Gamble will slash positions from its staff.
AI-driven job cuts are frightening middle- and high-income workers that have largely been shielded by massive cuts. For years, those layoffs were concentrated in US manufacturing plants.
The trend is freaking out college-educated employees.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
Toyota to raise US auto prices by more than $200 from July, Bloomberg News reports
June 20 (Reuters) - Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), opens new tab will raise prices of some vehicles it sells in the U.S. by more than $200 from July, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Some Toyota- and Lexus-branded models will have their prices increased by an average of $270 and $208, respectively, the report said, citing Nobu Sunaga, a spokesman for the company. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
'MAGA Mark' Zuckerberg leaves Meta staff horrified after Joe Rogan chat
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg 's new machismo and perceived alignment with President Trump has reportedly unsettled employees and execs inside the company. The billionaire tech mogul has been dubbed 'MAGA Mark' by staffers following his January appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, where he criticized Corporate America as 'culturally neutered' and called for more 'masculine energy' in the workplace. Zuckerberg's remarks - made as an aspiring MMA fighter - sparked discomfort among employees at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, according to the Financial Times. In the days following the interview, several executives raised concerns during a leadership meeting at Meta's California headquarters. 'He basically said, "If you don't like it, tough s**t,"' a source familiar with the conversation told the Financial Times. On the podcast, Zuckerberg, 41, also praised mixed martial arts as a form of male bonding and argued that male aggression can be constructive. 'There's this crazy thing about wrestling,' he told Rogan, a former MMA commentator. 'If you get into a fight with someone at work, you're probably going to get fired. But if you train in MMA, you can roll hard with someone and you're both better friends afterward.' 'In a lot of the corporate world, there's this assumption that aggression or intensity is inherently negative,' he added. 'But it's not. I actually think it's useful - you just need to know how to channel that energy.' Zuckerberg's evolution from a traditional Silicon Valley liberal to someone increasingly aligned with Donald Trump, 79, has become a hallmark of his leadership at Meta. Once known as a low-profile, hoodie-clad Democrat, Zuckerberg has reshaped his public persona - appearing shirtless in MMA training videos, sporting gold chains, and flaunting luxury watches. His appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast - one of several engagements with largely male, anti-woke audiences - fueled growing criticism that he's signaling a broader political shift to the right. His public praise for Trump and reductions in content moderation at Meta have further intensified concerns about the company's ideological direction, the Financial Times reported. But, insiders argue that Zuckerberg isn't changing so much as revealing a version of himself they've always known. 'When he was 19 years old, I think he had an idea in his head of what a CEO was supposed to be like and he was trying to be that, especially in public,' Meta's chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth, told the Financial Times. 'The public is seeing him more how we have, internally, since the beginning,' Bosworth added. Zuckerberg's evolving persona comes as he positions Meta aggressively in the high-stakes race for dominance in artificial intelligence. Last week, the company made headlines with its $14.3 billion acquisition of Scale AI, securing a 49 percent non-voting stake in the startup and access to its infrastructure and talent - including founder Alexandr Wang, who now leads Meta's new 'superintelligence' unit. However, his move has triggered backlash from rivals, with OpenAI and Google severing ties with Scale over conflict-of-interest concerns, the New York Post reported. With plans to spend $65 billion annually on AI by 2025, the technology company is 'betting big.' But, the ambitious approach comes with risks, including mounting costs, regulatory scrutiny, and challenges in retaining top engineering talent. As of Friday, Zuckerberg was the world's second-richest person, with a net worth of $245 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Despite the heavy-hitting criticism, Zuckerberg isn't alone in his apparent shift toward a more MAGA- aligned stance. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, once seen as a liberal-leaning titan of industry, has recently voiced criticisms of the Biden administration and echoed right-leaning talking points. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk famously made a similar pivot earlier, aligning himself with conservative narratives on free speech, 'wokeness,' and government overreach - positions that initially found common ground with figures like Trump before their public falling out.
Auto Blog
2 hours ago
- Auto Blog
Toyota Aims to Meet Stateside GR Corolla Demand with UK Production Line
Toyota's GR Corolla is one hot ride On paper, it is easy to understand the hype for the Toyota GR Corolla. For $39,995, car enthusiasts can pretty much get the closest thing to a WRC-winning rally car that money can buy and that your DMV will let you register for road use. While it shares its body with a practical five-door hatchback, Toyota's Gazoo Racing division stuffed lots of high-performance toys for unlimited smiles per gallon, including a turbocharged 1.6-liter three-cylinder engine producing 300 rampageous horsepower under the hood, an all-wheel-drive system, track-ready suspension, and a stiffened chassis. 2025 Toyota GR Corolla — Source: Toyota Toyota isn't faffing about with American demand for its pocket rocket With all this in tow, it is easy to see how Toyota's fast, little hatchback could be a sleeper hit that is taking the automaker by surprise. According to a new report by Reuters, insiders say that demand for the all-wheel-drive pocket rocket in the U.S. is so high that it is making a major production shift to satisfy their cravings. According to two sources close to Toyota, the Japanese automaker is moving some GR production from Japan to the UK in order to reduce the delivery wait times for export vehicles for the North American market. Currently, the GR Corolla is built on a dedicated assembly line shared with the GR Yaris at Toyota's Motomachi plant in Toyota City, Japan, which is reportedly insufficient to satisfy enthusiast demand in the U.S. and Canada. To accommodate this, Toyota will spend nearly $56 million to dedicate one production line at its plant in Burnaston, Derbyshire, in the UK. When it comes online in 2026, this line will be capable of producing 10,000 cars per year for export to the North American market. Opened in 1992, Burnaston uses some of Toyota's advanced production technology to pump out cars as fast as one per 60 seconds. Already, the English factory produces the Toyota Corolla hatchback, the vehicle on which the GR Corolla is based. The 2025 Toyota GR Corolla on the streets of SoHo in New York City. — Source: James Ochoa However, one Toyota source who spoke to Reuters said that the automaker will temporarily dispatch engineers to the English factory to share its expertise and knowledge with the workers on building such a car. The sources who spoke with Reuters emphasized that GR models like the GR Corolla and GR Yaris require more time and effort to produce than their non-GR counterparts because of the many procedures that machines cannot do. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. Moving production of high-margin cars to the UK can be a tariff power move. Although Toyota produces and sells a smaller chunk of GR Corollas compared to its more mainstream models, Toyota insiders note that their higher price tags compared to 'regular' Corollas command higher margins for the company, which could be a good deal, given the tariff situation currently at hand. Earlier this month, the Trump administration brokered a trade deal with Kier Starmer and the British government to reduce tariffs on UK vehicle imports from 27.5% to 10%. While automakers seem to get a break, the Trump administration restricts this 'special rate' for the first 100,000 cars automakers bring on American shores. Toyota insiders told Reuters that the move was not made because of President Donald Trump's tariffs on imported cars. 2025 Toyota GR Corolla — Source: James Ochoa Final thoughts I am not surprised that Toyota would be considering this move, as there seems to be something about the UK and hatchbacks. Previously, the last generation of Honda Civic Type R was made in Swindon, England, alongside production of the 'standard' Civic Hatchback destined for American shores. Nonetheless, the GR Corolla is an exhilarating car, even when equipped with an automatic transmission. However, I do hope that when they make this shift, Toyota GR fans will be vigilant for any noticeable differences in build quality compared to units from the Motomachi plant. Those GR engineers have a lot on their plates. About the Author James Ochoa View Profile
