Tye Brady Talks Robotics

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bloomberg Talks – Tye Brady Talks Robotics (Oct 22, 2025)

Episode Overview

In this episode of Bloomberg Talks, the hosts engage Tye Brady, Chief Technologist at Amazon Robotics, in an in-depth discussion about Amazon’s ongoing advancements in robotics, the role of artificial intelligence, and the future of the workforce in the age of automation. The conversation covers major new announcements, addresses public concerns regarding job displacement, and offers insights into the company's philosophy on human-machine collaboration.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Major Announcements in Amazon Robotics

[01:35–02:43]

• Introduction of Blue Jay: Tye Brady reveals Amazon’s latest manipulation robot, Blue Jay, which can replace the footprint of three assembly lines with just one. Blue Jay handles over 75% of Amazon's sortable network inventory.

• AI Integration: Unlike its predecessors (Cardinal, Sparrow, Robin), Blue Jay was developed in just over a year thanks to advancements in AI, signaling a rapid pace of innovation.

  “We have actually done Blue Jay with the power of AI in just over a year... really have accelerated the pace of innovation.”
  – Tye Brady [02:23]

2. Evolving Robotics in Fulfillment Centers

[03:09–04:16]

• Beyond Kiva Robots: The discussion shifts from Amazon’s circa-2012 Kiva system acquisition to today’s variety of robots:

  • Proteus: Moves large cargo efficiently within warehouses.
  • Collaborative Robots: Tools like Robin and Cardinal reduce monotonous, heavy labor, and support teamwork between humans and machines.

• Augmentation, Not Replacement: Brady reiterates a central philosophy:

  “We really believe in the philosophy of people and machines working together... not only more efficiently, but also with better safety in mind.”
  – Tye Brady [03:49]

3. The Business Case: Efficiency vs. Workforce Impact

[04:58–06:11]

• ROI of Robotics: Efficiency is a primary motivator, but also adaptability (“pour our robotic systems into any size building”).

• Upskilling and New Job Types: Over 700,000 Amazon employees have been upskilled due to robotics. The technology has expanded into advanced mobility, perception, and packing solutions.

  "When you do collaborative robotics... it allows you to be more productive. And when you're more productive, that allows you to invest more in people."
  – Tye Brady [05:24]

4. Job Displacement and the Future of Work at Amazon

[06:11–09:04]

• Addressing NY Times Report: The hosts press on the speculation that robots could replace 500,000 jobs at Amazon within a decade.

• Tye’s Response: Brady emphasizes history over speculation, noting that serious robotics investment over the last decade led to hundreds of thousands of new jobs, not losses.

• Nature of Tasks, Not Jobs: He distinguishes between the elimination of “menial, mundane, and repetitive” tasks and actual job losses, highlighting safety improvements (30% reduction in injury rate) and new types of roles created.

  "We are laser focused on efficiencies... But when it comes to that article, that article was speculating 10 years out... But I can tell you what happened in the last 10 years."
  – Tye Brady [07:12]

  “I'm very bullish on eliminating every menial, mundane and repetitive job out there... But again, as history has shown, we continue to create jobs.”
  – Tye Brady [08:06]

5. Seasonal and Temporary Workforce Strategy

[09:04–10:03]

• Robotics and Seasonal Hiring: Despite increased automation, Amazon will offer 250,000+ temporary jobs during the holiday season, using robots to empower both permanent and temporary workers.

6. Global Robotics Competition and Perspective

[10:03–11:00]

• International Innovation: Host asks about robotics use in labor-shortage countries like Japan and China.
• Tye’s View: He stresses the difference between flashy prototypes or demos (“anybody can make a YouTube video”) and Amazon’s focus on real-world application at scale.

7. Final Thoughts on Robotics’ Role

[11:44–12:12]

• Collaboration as the Future: Brady concludes by underscoring that the best results come from reframing the relationship between people and machines, enhancing both productivity and safety.

  “Robotics, when done the right way, when you reframe your relationship with machines, you can enable more productivity, create greater efficiencies, and create a more safer environment for employees.”
  – Tye Brady [11:54]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Rapid AI Innovation: “We've actually done Blue Jay with the power of AI in just over a year...” – Tye Brady [02:23]
• Collaboration Mantra: “We really believe in the philosophy of people and machines working together...” – Tye Brady [03:49]
• On Job Evolution vs. Elimination: “I'm very bullish on eliminating every menial, mundane and repetitive job out there... But again, as history has shown, we continue to create jobs.” – Tye Brady [08:06]
• Real-World Robotics vs. Demos: “Anybody can make a YouTube video... Our world is all about application. Our world is the reality.” – Tye Brady [10:37]
• Ultimate Takeaway: “Robotics, when done the right way... can enable more productivity, create greater efficiencies, and create a more safer environment for employees.” – Tye Brady [11:54]

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Key Timestamps

• [01:35] – Event context and opening announcements
• [01:55] – Blue Jay robot and rapid AI-powered development
• [03:09] – What a modern Amazon warehouse looks like
• [04:58] – Business motivation: ROI and workforce augmentation
• [06:11] – Workforce shift speculation and job impact response
• [09:31] – Seasonal hiring and robotics empowerment
• [10:37] – Comparing global robotics trends
• [11:54] – Tye Brady’s closing thoughts

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive look at the cutting edge of Amazon Robotics, with Tye Brady candidly addressing both the opportunities and challenges presented by automation. The discussion balances technological breakthroughs with pragmatic workforce considerations, all through the lens of Amazon’s commitment to collaborative, real-world applications of robotics. The tone remains optimistic, focusing on partnership between humans and machines for a productive, efficient, and safer future.

Transcript

[A]

Indiana University is shaping the future of healthcare. Advancing discoveries that become treatments for Alzheimer's, obesity, cancer and rare diseases. And training the providers trusted to deliver them from the lab to the clinic. IU powers medical breakthroughs and the talent behind them. See how IU solves what's next iu. Edu Impact.

[B]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts, Radio news. Bloomberg's Thomas Black, he recently wrote an opinion piece and he talked about the hype around humanoid robots being pretty high, with forecasts of nearly 1 billion humanoids in service by 2050. But the reality is that most people overestimate what robots can do at this point in their development. Got to say though, one company that's been using robots a lot and for a long time and has deployed its 1 millionth robot, happens to be one of the world's largest market cap companies out there. It's also a household name. So we wanted to check in once again with Ty Brady. He is chief technologist at Amazon Robotics. He joins us from Amazon's delivering the Future 2025 event from Amazon's DUR3. It's a delivery station in Millipedes, California. And so we kind of want to find out where they are in terms of the world of robotics. Ty, I got to tell you, Tim and I loved talking to you last time. So, so glad to check in with you again. First of all, this event where you are, I mean, right now I just see a curtain, but I'm assuming there's lots of stuff at the event. Who's there? What's going on? Tell us a little bit about it.

[C]

Yep. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it and I enjoyed our conversation as well. It's just great to be here. We are our fourth Delivering the Future event here and there's a bunch of press that we have here and we made a couple of big announcements in robotics today.

[B]

Can you tell us about them?

[C]

But the first is in our manipulation robot that we call Blue Jay. And what? Blue Jay. The way that you can think of that is that you can take three assembly lines and put it in the same footprint of one. What it does is help eliminate the menial, the mundane, and the repetitive. And it could pick more than 75% of the inventory that we actually sell in our sortable network, which is a really big deal. I'm really proud of that. And I'll also say there's just something interesting about Blue J as well, as compared to our other bird manipulation systems, Cardinal, Sparrow and Robin, that took us about about three years to kind of design, deploy and get out to our frontline employees. We have actually done Blue Jay with the power of AI in just over a year. So it's really have accelerated the pace of innovation.

[D]

I think what a lot of people think about Amazon and robots, I just want to jump in because we don't have a ton of time. But we'll get to some of the other announcements. They think about the Kiva systems robots, the big acquisition at the time, you know, 2012, that was a big acquisition for Amazon and they've seen pictures of the way that those can move large loads of things across warehouses. But if you were to go into a state of the art Amazon warehouse today, what would you see? That's. That's in addition to those Kiva robots?

[C]

Yeah, in addition to our. The world's first goods to person fulfillment strategy, which was just a really good idea where we have more than a million robots that we manufacture actually in Massachusetts doing that job. Every day you're going to see more of the unstructured fields, right? So you're going to see green robot that we call Proteus that can move big cargoes of packages to the right dock at the right time. You're going to see many more manipulation systems that we have in there, eliminating kind of the repetitive motions that we have. No one wants to lift a 50 pound box all day. Robin does that, Cardinal does that. Moving it into some of these Proteus boundaries carts that we have. You're going to see much more collaborative robotics, right? So that's where we build our robotic systems to enable people to augment what people are capable of. And we really believe in the philosophy of people and machines working together. How can we build the tool set that enables our employees to do their job not only more efficiently, but also with, with better safety in mind?

[B]

All right, so there's this robot arm called Bluejay. You just talked about it. You know, you guys are using this AI agent called Elun. And then you're also working with augmented reality glasses to be worn by drivers in delivery trucks in the field. There's like so much going on. Step back for a moment because you guys have a lot of data. You look at what you're doing. I'm just curious. Investors who are thinking about Amazon and what you are doing, how do they think about the long term, like roi, return on investment. When it comes to the investment you guys make in robots, is the goal about labor efficiency, throughput speed, or is it margin expansion kind of tie across Your fulfillment operations, what is it?

[C]

Yeah, well, definitely efficiency. We think about efficiencies and how can we gain efficiency through all the chain of our fulfillment processes. For sure. And, and you mentioned data. And data is the fuel for AI systems. Data has allowed us to bring, think of the, the body of being our robotics, but bring the mind to robotics, allowing it to be more adaptable, more fluid. You can almost think of this as the ability to pour our robotic systems into any size building, any scale of building, to amplify what our employees are already doing. We want to give them an amazing tool set. And we see that when we do that, we're more productive. Right. When you do robotics. Right. When you do collaborative robotics, where you need both people and machines doing what they do best and they do different things better, that it allows you to be more productive. And when you're more productive, that allows you to invest more in people. We've upskilled more than 700,000 of our employees, which is a great stat. And also in our robotics, we've expanded from the KIVA days. We've expanded from just a movement solution to now movement and mobility and sortation and storage and perception systems, packing systems that really change the game for our customers. That's a big deal to us.

[B]

But Ty, you know, will, you need less workers? And I got to bring it up. You know, the Times had a story out. They talked about interviews and a cache of internal strategy documents that they saw that it reveals that your execs think that the company's on the cusp of its next big workplace shift. I'm reading from the Times and replacing more than half a million jobs with robots. So, you know, we know things change. I'm not in horse and buggy anymore. I don't make things piecemeal. I get it. I don't get tons of faxes and I don't get tons of pieces of physical mail. Thank God. Things change. Having said, that is Amazon. Do you guys believe that you're on the cusp of a workplace shift and that you won't need as many workers because the advancements in robotics.

[C]

Well, there's no doubt that things change. I mean, and we're actually really proud of that at Amazon, is that we avoid stasis at all cost. We change and we adapt. And the nature of tasks definitely changed. There's no doubt about that. We are laser focused on efficiencies inside of our buildings. But when it comes to that article, that article was speculating 10 years out. Right? That's a 10 year speculation. And it's hard to say what's going to happen in the next 10 years. But I can tell you what happened in the last 10 years. The last 10 years, which is when we seriously invested in robotics, that we created hundreds of thousands of new jobs and new job types. And there's been no employer in the United States that has employed hundreds of more people than Amazon in 10 years. I mean that, that's, and that's the power of, of efficiencies and building your robots in a way that, that's applied and real, that actually augments the human potential.

[B]

All right. My brother said I'm not like a dog with a bone. So wait, so does that mean 10 years out? It could be less jobs or we just don't know or you don't think that's the case?

[C]

Well, you have to think about, I mean there's, there's jobs and there's tasks, right? So we, of course we're changing the nature of tasks. Like I'm very bullish on eliminating every menial, mundane and repetitive job out there. Nobody wants to do that. So we are going to Change those tasks 100%. But we can. Again, as history has shown, we continue to create jobs. Right, with the goal of two things. Can you have it all? Can you be more productive, which means more efficiency, and can you also create a safer environment for our employees? And we're actually doing both. That's what history has shown in the last 10 years. We have better than 30% reduction in our overall recordable injury rate over the last five years because of our robotics. And also much more efficient. For example, our latest generation fulfillment center in Shreveport is 25% more efficient. The order. So you can have it all, but you have to build your robotics in the right way that empowers people.

[D]

We're speaking with Ty Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics. When we think about hiring for these one off or seasonal events like the hall holiday season or Amazon Prime Day, I'm wondering how you're putting pencil to paper right now and thinking about those numbers and to what extent automation has reduced Amazon's, Amazon's dependency on seasonal or hourly labor for holidays for Prime Day. What does that look like? Or what will that look like this year, next year?

[C]

Well, it's the same philosophy of empowering employees, whether they're, they're temporary or they're full time employees with the world's best machines that help them do their job. That's the same philosophy. I'm really proud of the fact that this year, we're going to offer more than 250, 50,000 temporary jobs for our employees to come in during the holiday season. Those are good paying jobs. Really happy about that. Really pleased with that. And I'm really pleased with the work that our women and men have done in the robotics field, designing and pioneering these new physical AI systems that help them do their jobs better.

[B]

I got to say, one thing that I've been thinking a lot about is what's going on overseas, whether it's China, whether it's Japan. Bloomberg has done some reporting about service industries in Japan because they have a labor shortage that they are. Are leaning increasingly on robotics. Have you been over there and looking at what they're doing? And I'm just curious if you're seeing some things that are pretty impressive and that the US as a creator of things or its role in the robotics industry, has to keep a watch on what's going on in other countries.

[C]

Yeah, I think it's easy, especially in robotics, to get distracted about, you know, what other people are doing. I think anybody can make a YouTube video. I think anybody can kind of, you know, pop in and overflight something. But if you come into our world, our world is all about application. Our world is the reality.

[B]

All right. We were talking with Ty Brady, chief technologist, robotics at Amazon. Of course, our shot froze. That's the world of technology. We're talking a lot about technology. Stuff happens. And we're hoping we can get Ty back just to finish up this conversation.

[D]

Maybe the robots are using all the WI fi.

[B]

Her robots, like, I don't like what it is.

[D]

That is a connectivity thing, though.

[B]

Well, it feeds into the right. Like you.

[D]

It's all a question about resources.

[B]

Got to charge these puppies. Can't just plug them in, right. If they're. I don't know.

[D]

Hey, we need recharging too. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, it's called food and sleep. Yeah, for Tim, it's called robot food, food and sleep.

[D]

You know, I will say, do we have Ty back?

[B]

Can we grab them for 20 seconds? Ty, 20 seconds. Forgive us. Your final thoughts here.

[C]

Sorry about that.

[B]

No, it's okay.

[C]

Let it go. I'm ready for you.

[B]

Okay, 20 seconds. Just final thoughts for our audience because we got to run.

[C]

So final thoughts is that robotics, when done the right way, when you reframe your relationship with machines, you can enable more productivity, create greater efficiencies, and create a more safer environment for employees. And this collaborative mindset that we've had, that we've done for the last 10 years really does make the day.

[B]

Ty Brady over at Amazon, so appreciate it.

[A]

Indiana University is shaping the future of health care. Advancing discoveries that become treatments for Alzheimer's, obesity, cancer and other rare and complex diseases and training the next generation of providers, doctors and nurses trusted to address health challenges with skill, compassion and purpose. From the lab to the clinic, from research teams to patient care, IU talent is driving medical innovation, improving health outcomes and strengthening communities. See how IU solves What's next iu Edu Impact I'm Carol Massar.

[D]

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[B]

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[D]

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[B]

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[D]

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[B]

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[D]

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[B]

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[D]

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