Amazon unveils AI robot that takes spoken orders

Amazon Unveils Next-Gen Proteus Robot in €10 Billion Europe Push

Amazon on Thursday introduced an upgraded autonomous warehouse robot that employees can direct using everyday conversational language, as part of a more than €10 billion investment plan to expand and modernize its fulfillment operations across Europe.

The e-commerce giant showcased the next-generation Proteus at its “Delivering the Future” event at its Dartford fulfillment center east of London, where it also announced plans to add 25,000 jobs to its European workforce and committed $1 billion globally to its Career Choice employee upskilling program.reuters

A Robot That Takes Plain-Language Orders

The original Proteus robot operates in dock areas within fulfillment centers, transporting heavy carts weighing close to 400 kilograms. The next-generation version breaks free of those constraints, capable of working anywhere items need to be moved—from receiving containers on arrival to transferring them between workstations across fulfillment centers and delivery sites.aboutamazon

The most notable advancement is in how workers interact with the machine. Using AI, the new Proteus understands natural language, allowing employees to assign tasks the way they would speak to a colleague rather than through technical commands or programming interfaces.globalbankingandfinance

“You tell it what needs to be done. It figures out the priority, the route, the timing,” said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics. “It becomes your assistant for material movement.”reuters

The system is currently being piloted in Amazon’s labs, with deployment across European sites planned for the first half of 2027.aboutamazon

Broader Robotics Roadmap

The Proteus upgrade sits within a wider robotics expansion across the continent. Amazon also highlighted STARK, a collaborative robotic tote-handling system that picks full totes from conveyors and places them on carts—work that otherwise requires repetitive heavy lifting. Born from an operations employee’s idea, STARK was first piloted in Barcelona, Spain, and is planned to expand to 15 European sites by 2027.globalbankingandfinance

Vulcan, Amazon’s first robot equipped with touch-sensitive force feedback sensors, is also expanding. Originally developed for a facility in Spokane, Washington, Vulcan has moved into Amazon’s Hamburg facility in Germany for more complex picking tasks.aboutamazon

Jobs and Investment

“Europe is at the center of how we’re building our operations for the future,” Dresser said. “The investment we’re making here, the talent we’re building with here, the technology we’re deploying here—this is where the next chapter of operations innovation is being written.”aboutamazon

The €10 billion commitment covers expansion and modernization of fulfillment operations over the coming years. Alongside this, Amazon’s $1 billion Career Choice pledge aims to upskill an additional 500,000 employees globally, with more than €30 million dedicated to the program across Europe in 2026.aboutamazon