06-29-2026SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

Exclusive: Inside Amazon’s brutal AI-centric app-ification of HR

Ineffective chatbots, automated apps, Kafkaesque nightmares: Amazon’s relentless focus on efficiency is pulverizing workers’ last lifeline of relief. “I watched the human get sucked out of the job,” says one former HR employee.

[Source images: JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images; Adobe Stock]

At an Amazon warehouse in Northeast Ohio, Laura works the night shift, operating an order picker that puts her 40 feet in the air.

“I’m a treasure hunter,” she says. “I use a forklift to go find stuff.”

The warehouse has not yet adopted any of the cutting-edge robotics systems that are transforming other Amazon facilities—but automation is creeping in.

In the 18 months since she started this job, Laura—who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation—has seen a major change in the HR presence at her warehouse. At most Amazon warehouses, a team of HR employees used to be available on-site to help workers resolve issues as they arise, reachable for most of their shift. But something changed this year.

“Now it’s like HR is there on banking hours,” Laura says, noting that she never sees an HR employee over the weekend. “On night shifts, we’re lucky to see them one day a week.”

Laura has already felt the effects of this change, which has forced workers like her to........

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