Amazon reveals revolutionary AI, robotics revolution as chief technologist says Australia won’t be left behind

Amazon’s chief technologist says Australia will not be left behind in upskilling or technology rollouts, as the tech giant’s future of warehouse management is revealed. Two AI-powered centrepieces – Blue Jay and Project Eluna – were both unveiled at Amazon’s Delivering the Future event in Milpitas, California this week as part of the company’s ambitious vision to revolutionise the delivery and warehouse packaging industry. At Amazon's Delivering the Future event in the US, NewsWire tried out the company's Slip, Trip, Fall simulator, getting a first-hand experience of the dangerous conditions delivery drivers face every day. While the event is heavily US-focused, it acts as a preview for how Amazon plans to roll out the technology on a global scale – including in Australia – in the midterm future. The company’s prioritisation of AI has already raised eyebrows in Australia, amid questions of how AI itself will be regulated and recent issues with upskilling staff in crucial AI and robotics retraining. Down Under, only 50 people have taken part in up the company’s upskilling scheme Career Choice. While Blue Jay is currently in the testing phase, Amazon Robotics chief technologist Tye Brady did not rule out suggestions the tech could make its ways to Australian shores. “Our strategy actually does not vary from country to country,” he said. Mr Brady said the company had a robust policy for how different projects turned from ideas on drawing boards to reality – all starting in a laboratory. “We don’t do technology for technology’s sake,” he told NewsWire. “We say: ‘What’s the problem we’re trying to solve? Does it have utility? Will it be better for our employees? Will be better for our customers?’ “Then, we’ll invest in a team – we call it two-pizza team – to just see what’s possible.” Mr Brady said the movement from the lab to a “relevant environment” always proved tougher due to the need to work with high reliability numbers. For rollouts in Australia and across the rest of the world, this means even eliminating the 1 per cent of error that might arise, Mr Brady said. “So remember, 99 per cent is not good enough (for us),” he said. “When you ship billions of packages – billions with an ‘S’ - even if it was just one billion, one per cent error is ten million exceptions. “That’s just one per cent. So we have to do better than that … we have increase the quality of the robotic system. “There’s a big process to go from how we experiment to an actual product that’s for our final employees.” Amazon reveals future of AI, robotics in warehouses Amazon’s newest operations technologies include Blue Jay, a robotics system co-ordinating multiple arms, and Project Eluna, an agentic AI model to help streamline warehouse operations. Both projects were unveiled at the Delivering the Future event, held at the tech giant’s DUR3 Delivery Station outside San Francisco City. Amazon has debuted its new robotics operation system Blue Jay, a system coordinating multiple robotic arms to create safer and more efficient workspaces. Blue Jay is described by Amazon as an “extra set of hands” helping employees with reaching and lifting tasks. Using multiple robotic arms, it is able to perform several tasks at once, streamlining warehouse processes by picking, stowing and consolidating items that can weigh up to 12 pounds (roughly 5kg). “Visually, Blue Jay operates like a juggler who never drops a ball — only here, the ‘balls’ are tens of thousands of items moving at high speed. It’s also like a conductor leading an orchestra, with every motion in harmony,” Amazon said in a statement. Currently, it is being tested at an Amazon centre in South Carolina – where it is able to pick, stow, and consolidate about 75 per cent of the various items stored there. Amazon also revealed Project Eluna, described as an “extra teammate” to reduce the cognitive loads of operations managers in warehouses. The program has been designed to act with a degree of autonomy, reasoning through complex operational situations and recommending actions to operators by using historical and real-time data across centres. This allows it to anticipate bottlenecks and keep operations running smoothly. Project Eluna will be piloted at an Amazon fulfilment centre in Tennessee. In Australia, Amazon has already flagged a $20bn investment over four years to fast-track and expand its data infrastructure in Sydney and Melbourne. Three new solar farms are also being built in Victoria and Queensland to support local cloud infrastructure. These projects are in addition to the eight already in operation powering Amazon Australia’s operations in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. All 11 projects are estimated to generate enough electricity to power 290,000 Australian homes a year. More than half of Aussie businesses using AI A recent report prepared by Strand Partners and Amazon Web Services (AWS) found at least half of Australian businesses were using some form of AI, marking year-on-year growth of 16 per cent. But 61 per cent of larger businesses surveyed reported their AI adoption remained at the “most basic level” focused on incremental gains – such as “driving efficiencies” and “streamlining” processes. The report noted there was an “emerging two-tier economy” between start-ups and large enterprises due to the skill gap in adopting AI technologies. “If unaddressed, this ‘two-tier’ AI economy – with tech-driven start-ups outpacing larger, established enterprises in AI innovation – could have a lasting impact on Australia’s AI-driven growth and innovation,” the report states. Only 37 per cent of businesses reported feeling comfortable with their current digital skills in adopting AI. Of those surveyed, 72 per cent said government support in the form of tax incentives or grants were important in their decision to roll out AI technologies. The federal government currently does not have any regulation solely dedicated to monitoring AI, but is canvassing guardrails for the “safe and responsible” use of such programs. This includes whether they adapt existing frameworks to include such guardrails, or introduce a new cross-economy Act. One of the guardrails involves determining whether an AI system is considered “high-risk” – that is, impacting a person’s rights under Australian human rights law, their physical or mental health and safety, and if the system poses other substantial legal, social, economic and environmental risks. The federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources has already published a guide for organisations to develop and deploy AI in Australia. Another proposed guardrail would require information to be provided to other organisations across the supply chain so they can understand its data, modelling and systems. *NewsWire’s travel and accommodation in San Francisco were provided by Amazon