Meet Vulcan: the robot that might make your job “easier”
Matt V
May 12, 2025
AMAZON
Big tech is still split on what happens to human jobs in an AI-driven future.
Some think bots will take over nearly everything, except maybe their own jobs.
Others believe robots will take on the dull or risky tasks, while humans move into entirely new roles that the tech creates.
The second view has some weight behind it.
The World Economic Forum estimates that while 92 million jobs could disappear, around 170 million new ones could be created in their place.
You read that right - AI could create far more jobs than it replaces.
But for people in manual or lower-paid roles, it’s not always clear what that shift looks like in real life.
Amazon gave a hint this week with the launch of its new robot Vulcan.
It’s designed to handle physically awkward tasks, like reaching high shelves or bending to the floor, so workers don’t have to.
The company says Vulcan is meant to make work safer and free up staff to upskill.
Amazon also mentioned that a small number of employees are being trained to become robot tech or floor monitors, jobs that didn’t exist a few years ago but now support 75% of customer orders, already involving bots.
The only problem…
It’s not a straight swap.
Not everyone wants to, or can, become a robot mechanic.
The inclusion of a retraining programme alongside the Vulcan launch is therefore important.
Until now, there’s been little detail on what actually happens to everyday workers once bots start doing more.
Some people imagine a world where humans just oversee automation, like one stagger watching over a bunch of self-checkouts.
The key bits:
Amazon’s new robot Vulcan helps with hard-to-reach warehouse tasks.
Some warehouse staff are being retrained as robot technicians and monitors.
A fully automated workforce still seems a long way off for most industries.
Goodbye ladder, hello Vulcan
Then again, that future might not arrive so quickly. Robots are expensive, and so far, mainly used by huge companies like Amazon.
Remember their “Just Walk Out” checkout tech?
It didn’t take off in wider retail and turned out to involve people in India labelling footage behind the scenes. Even Amazon has since scaled it back.
75% of your orders are touched by bots - not even we knew that.