Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are creating significant employee efficiencies at Amazon — which strives to be the world’s most customer-centric company where customers can find anything they may want to buy online. A few examples:

• New innovations were designed with Amazon’s front-line employees in mind to reduce repetitive tasks, improve safety, and boost productivity.
• A new robotics system, agentic AI tool, and smart glasses for delivery drivers are among the biggest announcements.
• Amazon’s AI solutions reduce packaging waste, support disaster relief, and advance clean-energy solutions.

At Amazon, innovation goes far beyond technology — it’s about driving meaningful progress for customers, employees, communities, and the planet. The company’s latest breakthroughs show how people and technology can work hand in hand to tackle complex challenges, from faster deliveries to reducing food insecurity and building sustainable AI solutions.

Across fulfillment centers nationwide, new AI and robotics systems like Blue Jay and Project Eluna are helping employees work smarter and safer. Blue Jay takes on repetitive tasks, while Project Eluna delivers real-time operational insights—together creating more efficient and empowering workplaces for front-line teams.

Amazon’s AI-driven sustainability efforts are cutting packaging waste, strengthening disaster response, and advancing clean energy innovation. And through 2028, the company will continue to fight hunger by extending its free home food delivery program, ensuring that technology also serves those who need it most.

These innovation announcements aren’t just powering a better Amazon, they’re demonstrating how Amazon's operational innovations create value that extends far beyond packages arriving at doorsteps.

New Robotics System Speeds Up Deliveries

Blue Jay is a next-generation robotics system that coordinates multiple arms to perform picking, stowing, and consolidating tasks simultaneously. This breakthrough technology effectively collapses three assembly lines into one, creating greater efficiency in less space while supporting front-line employees.

Blue Jay allows employees to shift from repetitive physical tasks like stowing items to higher-value work like quality control and problem-solving, making jobs less physically demanding while ensuring customers receive the right products faster. 

Agentic AI Model Helps Teams Make Better Decisions

Project Eluna is an agentic AI model that transforms how fulfillment centers operate. This digital tool processes real-time and historical data from across facilities, providing insights in natural language to help operations teams make better decisions.

Project Eluna enables operators to anticipate bottlenecks and chart efficient paths forward instead of scanning dozens of dashboards. Currently being deployed at a Tennessee fulfillment center for the holiday shopping season, Project Eluna will optimize sortation and eventually support preventive safety measures, helping plan ergonomic employee rotations and improve maintenance schedules.

The system allows operators to spend less time analyzing dashboards and more time coaching teams, creating safer work environments while enabling smarter, faster decision-making across Amazon's global operations network.

Amazon Project Eluna identifies a bottleneck at a fulfillment center.

New Virtual Reality Training for Delivery Drivers

Amazon is revolutionizing delivery driver training with immersive virtual reality modules that prepare drivers for real-world challenges before they hit the road at Integrated Last Mile Driver Academies (iLMDA).

More than 300,000 drivers have completed the VR training since 2022. Based on the positive impact and enthusiastic feedback, iLMDA is projected to grow to more than 95 delivery stations across North America by December 2026, bringing enhanced safety training to thousands more drivers.

Delivery drivers going through a simulated training exercise at an Amazon Last Mile Driver Academy. 

The newest program to the iLMDA, is the Enhanced Vehicle Operation Learning Virtual Experience (EVOLVE). It’s a driving simulator that recently launched in Colorado, Maryland, and Florida facilities. This driving simulator provides immediate feedback on performance to learners and prompts hands-on critical defensive driving skills development in a safe, standardized virtual environment.

More than 6,000 newly onboarded drivers have participated in EVOLVE, with a behind-the-wheel participation rate over 90%. Amazon anticipates 40 iLMDA sites will offer the EVOLVE experience by the end of 2026.

More Delivery Innovations Designed For Speed

Amazon is on track to deliver at its fastest speeds ever for Prime members globally in 2025, with more total items arriving the same or next day than ever before through technological innovation, strategic facility placement, and specialized delivery methods.

An Amazon delivery person loads packages in a cargo compartment of an e-bike on a city street—an innovative new form of urban delivery. 

The company's $4 billion investment is tripling its rural delivery network by 2026, bringing Same-Day and Next-Day Delivery to more communities. AI-powered demand prediction places inventory closer to customers, while Amazon Pharmacy now offers prescription medications for Same-Day Delivery in over a dozen major cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle — with recently announced kiosks, delivering medications in minutes.

Specialized vehicles ensure optimal delivery in different environments — from e-cargo bikes in dense cities to drones in Arizona. Meanwhile, sustainable Same-Day sites like Sacramento's Zero Carbon-certified fulfillment center prove speed and sustainability can coexist. Amazon has also expanded Same-Day Delivery to include perishable grocery items, allowing customers to receive fresh produce and other temperature-sensitive items within hours.

Related Articles:

• AI-Empowered: From Planning to Operations and Risk Management
• Amazon’s Approach to Robotics Fulfillment
• Last-Mile Delivery: What It Means for Food Retailers
• Albertsons Is Expanding Automation at Distribution Centers
• Sam’s Club: Artificial Intelligence in Supply Chain

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