Amazon will have more robots than people by 2030: Cathie Wood
Amazon will have more robots than people by 2030: Cathie Wood
‘We are just at the dawn of the robotics age. And I would say artificial intelligence and battery technology are all a part of that movement as well,’ said Wood. ‘For every cumulative doubling in the number of robots produced, the cost declines are in the 50% to 60% range.’
Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest, predicted that Amazon could be using more robots than humans by the year 2030.
In a CNBC interview, Wood claimed that Amazon is “adding about 1,000 robots a day” and that the number of robots compared to the number of employees is currently about a third.
According to the portfolio manager, factors such as the cost advantages of automation mean that other companies are much more quickly adapting to robotics.
“We are just at the dawn of the robotics age. And I would say artificial intelligence and battery technology are all a part of that movement as well,” said Wood. “For every cumulative doubling in the number of robots produced, the cost declines are in the 50% to 60% range.”
Since its peak nearly two years ago, Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF, which invests in companies developing disruptive technologies, has fallen by approximately 70%. It has, however, recently rebounded with a 28% increase due to a resurgence in the technology sector of the stock market.
Amazon’s most recent annual report revealed that at the end of 2021, the company employed 1.6 million people, but leaked internal research obtained by Vox stated that Amazon believes a labor shortage could occur next year and that higher wages and increased automation may help slow the crisis.
To this end, Amazon and other major employers, such as Walmart, have recently raised hourly wages substantially in an attempt to attract and retain employees.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in the current job market, there are 11 million job openings and 5.72 million unemployed individuals while inflationary pressures increase as firms compete to offer better wages.
Other companies have decided to automate their operations in order to cope with the lack of staff. McDonald’s opened a test restaurant in Texas that operates without customer-facing staff and instead relies on kiosks and a mobile app to take orders and Chipotle tested a robotic tortilla chip maker in an experiment in California.
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