Amazon made a series of significant announcements during its Delivering the Future event in the United Kingdom, focusing on Europe. The company pledged billions in new investments, thousands of jobs, and introduced a new generation of robots that could transform the lives of consumers, warehouse workers, and the broader logistics industry.
Over a hundred journalists and creators attended Amazon’s largest warehouse in Europe, LCY3, located in Dartford, to witness how technology is currently accelerating the journey from click to doorstep and what the American tech giant has in store for the continent.
Spanning over 216,000 square metres, the facility delivers 4 million units per week, according to the company. The massive site resembles an industrial amusement park, with 32 kilometres of conveyor belts moving millions of boxes and totes above your head at high speed, complemented by warning and safety signs throughout the building.
The LCY3 facility already employs robotics and AI software, which Amazon claims have enhanced the speed and safety of employee work. On the second floor, above the conveyor belts, there is a room filled with Hercules Drives, a mobile robot developed by Amazon. Each floor houses 1,660 of these robots, which navigate 21,700 tall, yellow storage towers known as pods, stocked with items by human workers following directions from AI software.
Amazon recently acquired a Swiss robotics startup to test its machines for 'doorstep delivery'.
Beyond a barrier that journalists were not allowed to cross for safety reasons, a swarm of robots moved quickly and precisely, swapping positions with choreographed accuracy. These blue robots, resembling oversized robot vacuum cleaners, can lift up to 567 kg using sensors, 3D cameras, and navigation software to move around the warehouse floor.
"The robot uses an AI to help navigate the building called Deep Fleet… a bit like going into a city and you have 5,000 cars on the road, and there's no traffic lights to manage all of them. Deep Fleet is there to help coordinate these robots," said Martin Newton, Amazon Tours leader, who led Next on a guided tour.
The robots can also self-report issues for engineers to address, the tour guide added. Amazon claims that the robotics and software optimize space and speed, reduce walking distances, and improve accuracy.
Once an order is packed by a human, the package passes through a gigantic scanner emitting vibrant neon colors. In the grey, overly lit industrial warehouse, the scanner looks like an unexpected floating disco. Amazon describes it as one of the smartest pieces of technology in the entire building.
The SICK scanner measures the 3D dimensions of each package, reads shipping labels, and sends parcels into the correct lane corresponding to a specific delivery station. "All of that in milliseconds. The package never stops moving. Thousands an hour, every hour, with near-perfect accuracy," Amazon told Next.
From there, packages move through the shipping sorter, which travels 180 km a day inside the facility.
Amazon's warehouses in Europe, like LCY3, still rely on human hands. Thousands of employees and associates work at the Dartford site daily. They perform quality control on items, pick orders from inventory towers, and pack them at more than 200 stations across each floor.
With the new investments, Amazon says the next generation of its Proteus autonomous robot will be able to handle heavy lifting up to 400 kg, reduce physical strain on workers, and support site safety.
"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. "It becomes your assistant for material movement."
The previous generation of Proteus is currently being used in the United States. However, the newer version, which Amazon said would be able to understand conversational prompts from employees, was not presented during the demo.
Amazon said the robot is currently being piloted in its labs, with deployment in Europe planned for the first half of 2027.
However, labour organizations and experts have previously warned that warehouse automation can increase pressure on human workers to keep up with machine-driven pace.
"We build our machines in service of people," Tye Brady, chief technologist at Amazon Robotics, told Next.
"We build the machines to match the rates of people in their natural movements. We build it as a system of people and machines working together," Brady added.
Brady mentioned that more robotics would allow employees to focus more on critical thinking, such as spotting a leaking pallet of Nutella before a robot moves it through the sortation area and ends up "covered in chocolate".
"When we have great employees and have great machines working together, we can gain the productivity and efficiency gains that we see inside of Amazon while creating a safer environment."
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