Report: 2022 Was a Record Year for Robot Workers

A tight labor market forced companies to embrace robotics at a record rate last year.

North American companies ordered a little more than 44,100 robots in 2022, 11% more than the prior year and the largest number on record, Reuters reported Friday (Feb. 11), citing data from industry group the Association for Advancing Automation or A3.

The value of those machines amounted to $2.38 billion, an 18% increase over the previous year, A3’s findings showed.

The “labor shortage doesn’t seem to be letting up,” Jeff Burnstein, president of A3, told Reuters.

However, Burnstein said orders slowed noticeably at the end of the year, raising questions about how this year will play out.

“The fourth quarter was really propped up by the strength in the auto industry,” he said. “We saw a falling off in non-automotive orders.”

In addition, a move away from pandemic-era consumer behavior likely caused orders to drop off in some segments, Burnstein said.

“You saw companies like Amazon put a pause on building new warehouses, which means they probably canceled or delayed purchases of new automation.”

Last year saw both Amazon and rival Walmart invest in automated fulfillment. Walmart announced in October it had acquired Alert Innovation, a robotics automation company that “develops material-handling technology for automating order fulfillment in retail supply chains.”

Amazon, meanwhile, launched Sparrow, which it calls “an intelligent robotic system that streamlines the fulfillment process,” in December.

“The back-and-forth battle of bleeding-edge technology currently between the two retail titans is reshaping the industry landscape by innovating — and automating — more touch points along the customer journey,” PYMNTS wrote at the time.

“It is also ultimately reshaping the future of work by redefining the role of over a million human Amazon warehouse workers.”

The embrace of robotics isn’t confined to North American companies. PYMNTS reported last month that European retailers were using robots to boost efficiency and productivity.

For example, U.K. and Ireland-based electronics retailer Currys recently teamed with UX Global (UXG), a British digital display specialist to test “KettyBot,” a customer assistance robot developed by Shenzhen-based company Pudu Robotics.

However, the technology goes beyond just efficiency, Jamba President Geoff Henry said in a recent interview with PYMNTS after his company debuted fully autonomous smoothie stations in eight U.S. locations.

“The repeat rate has been very high,” Henry said. “We’re obviously tracking those who purchase and then come back and purchase again [and] benchmarking that relative to what we would expect versus industry standards, and we’ve been pleased.”