Robots Will Replace 700,000 Workers

It really doesn’t matter who made the statement if he or she really, really knows what they are talking about. Richard Liu, founder and chair of JD.com, said that “sooner or later” robots would replace 700,000 delivery workers in China. Early experimental versions of this business model are already in place in China, the FT reported.

Who supports this point of view? To a large extent, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Job destruction by the next generation of tech will not be limited to AI software. It will be advanced robots powered by AI.

Just nine months ago, The New York Times ran an extensive exposé on Amazon’s plans to avoid increasing its workforce by automating about 75% of its operations. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) expects to sell about twice as many products as it does now by 2033. Robotic automation would allow for much of the growth. “That would translate to more than 600,000 people whom Amazon didn’t need to hire,: the Times reported. Another conclusion of the analysis is that Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and UPS (NYSE: UPS) will be able to do the same. If the process works, add countless numbers of smaller companies that can make similar business decisions,

Elon Musk says he can build billions of his Optimus robots, which will handle most human tasks. He has even stopped producing his Model S and Model X vehicles so he can use the factory that builds them to manufacture the first generation of Optimus. NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang recently added, “Physical AI has arrived — every industrial company will become a robotics company.”

What is at stake? Around the world, certainly tens of millions of jobs, if these three CEOs (or chairman) are close to correct. It raises, once again, how the world handles this level of unemployment.

The ability to replace factory and delivery workers is only a part of AI job destruction. White-collar workers, particularly at the entry level, have found out that much of what they would do can already be done by AI. The same is true with software programmers. Companies that include Block (NYSE: XYZ) have already laid off thousands of workers because their jobs can be done more cheaply and efficiently by AI applications.

Liu’s comment is one more that supports the idea that AI will cause an employment apocalypse.