Amazon unveils AI warehouse robot at UK site

TL;DR:

  • Amazon has unveiled an upgraded, AI-powered Proteus robot that responds to conversational prompts and can roam warehouse floors.
  • It was shown at Amazon’s Dartford fulfilment centre, part of a €10bn (about £8.6bn) European investment.
  • Ultra-fast delivery service Amazon Now is expanding to Manchester and Birmingham.

Amazon has chosen a UK site to debut its next-generation warehouse robot, unveiling an AI-powered version of its Proteus machine at the company’s Dartford fulfilment centre east of London. Part of a €10bn (roughly £8.6bn) investment in its European network, the new robot can operate across warehouse floors rather than just dock areas, and responds to spoken instructions. “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.

Automation lands closer to UK jobs

The current Proteus runs at 25 US sites and moves carts of up to nearly 400kg; the upgraded model reaches Europe in the first half of 2027. Amazon also showed STARK, a tote-handling system piloted in Barcelona and bound for 15 European sites by 2027, and Vulcan, its first robot with a sense of touch. On delivery, the company plans more than 25 sub-same-day sites across Europe this year, with Amazon Now expanding to Manchester and Birmingham. The figures sit inside a vast capital programme — Amazon has forecast capital expenditure jumping more than 50% to $200bn (about £149bn) this year as it builds out AI infrastructure.

For UK readers, the Dartford launch makes the automation debate concrete. It arrives the same week a Treasury minister warned AI-driven job losses could strain the welfare state, and as the government asks firms to share data on how AI is reshaping work. Robots that take spoken orders and plan their own routes change the shape of warehouse work, not just its speed.

Looking forward

With deployment slated for 2027, the UK’s large Amazon warehouse footprint will be among the first to feel the shift. How the company redeploys staff alongside conversational robots will be a live test of the “invest in human capital” message ministers are now pressing on business.

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