As of 2025, the field of robotics has made many advancements. Many companies have created robots that are capable of manipulating the environment around them, moving freely, and even interacting with humans. For example, Boston Dynamics – a Boston-based robotics company, has been working on a robot named Atlas. Atlas, who has seen many variations and improvements since 2013, is fully capable of 360-degree movements and can organize objects.
While Boston Dynamics has not publicly expressed any major plans to release Atlas, some robots can be purchased, such as Spot, also from Boston Dynamics (Spot is a dog-like robot that can navigate many environments and carry industrial loads). However, many speculate that we could see advanced robots, similar to Atlas, in the workforce. Only now, when could it happen?
According to a Forbes article, 30% of jobs in the US could be automated by 2030. Other research shows the percentage increasing as time goes on. While this does not provide a definitive answer, we can already see the emergence of robots in some places.
The best example of this is Amazon. Inside their shipping buildings, they have many robots to do various jobs. Robots like Sparrow are hydraulic arms that can efficiently move and sort packages. One of their newer editions, Proteus, is a fully mobile robot that can transport boxes around facilities, navigating through the active human employees.
Recently, Amazon proudly announced that it had deployed its millionth robot, as of June 30th, 2025. This puts them as the largest global manufacturer and robotics operator.
While companies other than Amazon are also using robots, Amazon is proving a point. With the different kinds of robots, repetitive tasks can be performed faster, more consistently, and can make the jobs of humans far safer. With the current technology we have in robotics, it would seem that bots are best suited for jobs in manufacturing, processing, and delivery.
Based on how efficient Amazon claims its robots to be, it would seem that having robots work lower-level jobs would be beneficial to the world. And perhaps the greatest benefit of robots is their adaptability. Many companies work to create robots with diverse arrays of purposes and functions. In the future, we could see robots that are adapted to more advanced tasks such as rescue, building, and deep thinking. Put simply, robotics has lots of growth potential, and it can be utilized to efficiently accomplish and adapt to ever-changing tasks.
On the contrary, there could be many drawbacks to utilizing robots, regardless of the volume needed by a company.
Job displacement is the first issue. Although robots are currently most used in low-skill work environments, people also need jobs. As of July 2025, the unemployment rate in the US is 4.2%. While we have seen worse, companies mass-deploying robots could displace many human workers. This could also cause many shifts in demand for various types of jobs, such as retail and service, according to a research paper by MIT Sloan.
Vulnerability presents another issue. Companies are often targeted and suffer from large-scale cyberattacks. It would make sense that as more and more companies move to the cloud for their operations, cyberattackers would look to breach them more. This becomes more important when it’s considered that some companies may choose to operate their robots within their cloud systems. A compromised robot could do many dangerous things – release sensitive information, destroy company property, and interfere with company products. Worm viruses can replicate and spread across entire networks. And considering robots would operate off of either a control module or be hosted by an AI, more robots means more points of risk. In other words, robots could become tools for corporate sabotage.
Robots are not cheap either. While they might not require an hourly pay like humans would, purchasing them could be a large cost, especially right now. A Unitree G1 standard robot costs more than $21,000. Unitree’s high-end H1 model costs upwards of $99,000. For reference, this costs more than Ford’s Dark Horse Mustang, which is ~$70,000. Keep in mind, these are just robots that aim towards consumers, not businesses. Nonetheless, choosing to invest in robotic labor would be a steep investment, to say the least.
Perhaps the biggest of all, many businesses would see a loss in human touch. I covered this in my previous article about Journalism and AI. The best way to think like a human is to be a human. Sure, AI and robotic processing power are increasing, but they do not have the capacity to think and feel like a human. Many jobs out there may need to fall back on the human touch they once relied on.
The biggest takeaway I see from this is potential. While yes, companies may lean into and embrace robotics in labor in the future, many practicalities may prove that to be a bad idea. Truly, time can only tell what will happen. Journalism isn’t the same as a company needing workers; it is true that the human essence is invaluable to business, and can’t be replicated by a machine. And that’s a hill I’ll die on.
