How Technological Changes Have Impacted Amazon

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Multinational tech giant Amazon is subject to technological changes like any other growing company. Amazon’s many services such as its e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence require constant technological improvements and updates in order to run efficiently and continue evolving. In terms of the more recent Amazon technological developments, most of them involve their warehouse robots, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. According to ScienceDirect, technological changes or developments are defined as an increase in the outputs possible with a given level of inputs through the processes of invention, innovation, and diffusion. Technological changes can affect the overall working of the company and its systems, user experiences, and worker welfare. 

Over recent years, workplace safety has become an issue that has sparked the need for technological changes and advancements. A 2021 study from the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) has shown that the serious injury rate at Amazon warehouses is twice as high as the industry average. Amazon is working to improve workplace safety by implementing new robotic technology. New technologies are being developed at Amazon Robotics and Advanced Technology labs to help move totes, carts, and packages through Amazon facilities. Specifically at the Seattle-area research and innovation lab, there have been innovations to aid in improving workplace safety such as motion-capture software and warehouse robot “Ernie.” The motion-capture technology is being used to collect and compare data from a lab environment to the industry standard. The use of robotics is not necessarily new for Amazon, but the developments of new technology for its workplace robots seek to eliminate safety risks for employees. “Ernie” uses a robotic arm to deliver totes to employees to allow them to not have to reach up or bend down when retrieving items, and thus limit more strenuous movements.

More recently, a subsidiary of Amazon, Amazon Web Services, has developed AWS Supply Chain. It debuted at the annual AWS re:Invent 2022 event among many other new innovations. It is a cloud-based application that helps supply chain leaders mitigate risks and lower costs to increase supply chain resilience (Announcing AWS Supply Chain (Preview). This technological development has learned from past supply issues and can alert businesses when inventory is low. According to AWS Supply Chain’s webpage, it works with a business’ existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management systems, without requiring replatforming, upfront licensing fees, or long-term commitments. 

Another aspect discussed at the re:Invent 2022 was the Amazon CloudWatch. Although being a part of AWS since 2009, there are constantly changes and new developments being made to the service for Amazon Web Services cloud resources. A new change announced is the Amazon CloudWatch Logs data protection, which can detect and protect log data. Similarly another new feature, the Amazon CloudWatch cross-account observability, can search, analyze, and correlate cross-account data. To facilitate this, monitoring and source accounts are used.

Overall, these cloud developments secures Amazon’s position as the largest cloud service provider globally ahead of Microsoft and Google. Along with other technological features being added, it's safe to say that Amazon has a lot of hope for the future and its new capabilities.