Human workers take on new roles in a world of warehouse robots
Robots have the potential to transform fulfillment operations, but for now they still have their weaknesses. People are stepping up to fill those gaps, taking on new roles like water spider, crew chief, and “human in the loop.”
Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Labor is tight, but consumer demand is booming, so warehouse and DC leaders are turning to automation to keep up with the workload. That basic scenario has been playing out for years, with automated equipment vendors providing ever-more-powerful tools to boost fulfillment rates.
The latest round of warehouse tech includes robotic picking arms, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), and artificial intelligence (AI). Add it all up, and the resulting combination can seem like a nearly human collection of hands, legs, and brains. Some forecasts even suggest that machines will soon replace people in the distribution center, creating a “dark warehouse” that needs nothing more than a reliable power supply to operate 24/7.
But even as robots become a familiar sight in warehouses across the country, experts say human workers continue to play an important role. That’s largely a reflection of the varied nature of warehouse work. Unlike an automated assembly line, where robots perform structured and repetitive tasks, warehouses demand a significant amount of flexibility—think of today’s e-commerce fulfillment centers, where items, quantities, and packaging vary from order to order, and demands change from shift to shift.
Given those complexities, a successful robotic implementation still requires the participation of humans—whether they’re working collaboratively with the bots to pick orders, handling errors, or supervising fleets.
LEND ME A HAND
When it comes to applications that integrate people and robots, most people think of the collaborative robot, or cobot—a robot that works alongside human workers in a semiautomated process that leverages the strengths of both. An example might be an AMR that can navigate its way to an assigned warehouse rack but lacks the ability to pick individual goods efficiently—a job that is then performed by its human “collaborator,” who selects the items and deposits them into totes on the AMR.
But in many cases, the human worker’s contribution to the operation is less physical than cognitive.
Compared with robots, people are more flexible in their thinking and better at solving complex problems, says Stephen Dryer, senior global product manager for the material handling systems integrator Fortna (which recently merged with MHS Global).
“All the things that robots are not very good at will be the purview of the human,” Dryer says. “There’s a fear that robots are going to take over people’s jobs, and it is absolutely the case that robots can do certain things pretty well. But they are not efficient at higher-order tasks”—particularly ones requiring judgment calls and problem solving.
Dryer compares the current state of warehouse robotics with what’s happening in autonomous trucking. “It’s like the self-driving story; there were predictions of self-driving vehicles taking over and of people not getting jobs in trucking—or deciding not to go into the sector. But we’re not seeing that. Because with driving, you still need human brains, human eyes, human decision making,” he says.
BRINGING HUMANS INTO THE LOOP
The need for that higher-order work has driven the development of “human in the loop” (HITL) robotic systems, also known as “brains in the background” systems. As opposed to working shoulder to shoulder with a cobot to pick e-commerce orders, a person working in an HITL system serves as a supervisor. HITL systems need people for the same reason that a computer printer that can produce hundreds of copies of precisely printed pages still needs a human to clear paper jams or replace an empty ink cartridge.
In the warehouse, an employee working with HITL robots will monitor operations on the DC floor, and when a problem occurs, quickly step in to resolve the issue and avoid a systemwide work stoppage, Dryer says. For example, that worker might notice an operational logjam or a dropped package—known as an “exception event”—and get the robot back on track by resetting it to its “home” position or returning the fallen box to a picking zone, he says.
Many DCs have dubbed these robot supervisors “water spiders,” a nickname derived from their habit of darting around the building the way a water spider scurries around a pond, fixing problems for robots, says Erik Nieves, CEO and founder of the parcel-handling robotics platform Plus One Robotics.
“What people are good at is decision making, dealing with exceptions as they happen, and using our cognition and flexibility,” Nieves adds. “And the warehouse is predicated on variability, not predictability. So the lesson is, ‘Thou shalt have a human in the loop.’”
REMOTE CONTROL
The HITL concept originally grew out of cases where manufacturing facilities would assign people to repetitive tasks that were just slightly too complex for machines, termed “almost automatable,” Nieves says. “When a robot [encounters] something it doesn’t understand, a remote supervisor can step in and give it a command or show it what to do. If you can’t find a way to deal with exceptions, you are DOA, so you need to have HITL,” he says.
In Plus One’s case, that human in the loop is a “crew chief,” the company’s term for the remote supervisors who troubleshoot problems with clients’ automated systems. Available 24/7, these crew chiefs work in shifts from the company’s San Antonio headquarters, watching video feeds of warehouse robots in distant cities and putting things right—say, reorienting a confused robot—with the click of a mouse. Nieves notes that the job requires quick reactions and good judgment, making it suitable for someone with a background in computing or video gaming, but that it doesn’t require a college engineering degree.
That remote oversight allows the company to solve the majority of problems for warehouse robots, barring the rare physical problem, he says. “Occasionally a crew chief might see that a vacuum cup blew out, or a box broke open and there are DVDs all over the floor or something. Then they would alert a local person, usually staff from the maintenance department, and say ‘Cleanup in aisle 6,’” Nieves says.
Human workers play a similar role at Phantom Auto, a San Francisco-based provider of remote operation systems for forklifts. Drivers operate the vehicles from an office cubicle by viewing a live video stream from each remote-controlled lift truck, via a system that provides a 360-degree view and two-way audio. Like Plus One’s crew chiefs, they resolve the occasional physical problem inside the warehouse, known as an “edge case,” by notifying an employee in the building, says Elliot Katz, Phantom Auto’s co-founder and chief business officer.
Katz scoffs at the idea that warehouse robots will someday replace human workers entirely. “When the pandemic hit, people couldn’t go to work in close confines. And if AMRs were fully functional, that wouldn’t have been a problem. But that automation still can’t handle complex environments. There was never a better time for ‘robots to take over our jobs’ than the pandemic, when we couldn’t even go in the building. And it didn’t happen.”
As robotic technology continues to improve, autonomous platforms will take on increasingly complex tasks. But their abilities will always fall short of humans’ capacity to solve problems with creativity, Katz says. “‘Fully autonomous’ doesn’t exist. Robots are always going to be cobots,” he explains. “If and when robots start taking on [expanded roles] in larger deployments, that will just create new jobs for people as you have to have humans overseeing the operation and intervening when there’s an edge case.”
Warehouse automation orders declined by 3% in 2024, according to a February report from market research firm Interact Analysis. The company said the decline was due to economic, political, and market-specific challenges, including persistently high interest rates in many regions and the residual effects of an oversupply of warehouses built during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The research also found that increasing competition from Chinese vendors is expected to drive down prices and slow revenue growth over the report’s forecast period to 2030.
Global macro-economic factors such as high interest rates, political uncertainty around elections, and the Chinese real estate crisis have “significantly impacted sales cycles, slowing the pace of orders,” according to the report.
Despite the decline, analysts said growth is expected to pick up from 2025, which they said they anticipate will mark a year of slow recovery for the sector. Pre-pandemic growth levels are expected to return in 2026, with long-term expansion projected at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% between 2024 and 2030.
The analysis also found two market segments that are bucking the trend: durable manufacturing and food & beverage industries continued to spend on automation during the downturn. Warehouse automation revenues in food & beverage, in particular, were bolstered by cold-chain automation, as well as by large-scale projects from consumer-packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers. The sectors registered the highest growth in warehouse automation revenues between 2022 and 2024, with increases of 11% (durable manufacturing) and 10% (food & beverage), according to the research.
The Swedish supply chain software company Kodiak Hub is expanding into the U.S. market, backed by a $6 million venture capital boost for its supplier relationship management (SRM) platform.
The Stockholm-based company says its move could help U.S. companies build resilient, sustainable supply chains amid growing pressure from regulatory changes, emerging tariffs, and increasing demands for supply chain transparency.
According to the company, its platform gives procurement teams a 360-degree view of supplier risk, resiliency, and performance, helping them to make smarter decisions faster. Kodiak Hub says its artificial intelligence (AI) based tech has helped users to reduce supplier onboarding times by 80%, improve supplier engagement by 90%, achieve 7-10% cost savings on total spend, and save approximately 10 hours per week by automating certain SRM tasks.
The Swedish venture capital firm Oxx had a similar message when it announced in November that it would back Kodiak Hub with new funding. Oxx says that Kodiak Hub is a better tool for chief procurement officers (CPOs) and strategic sourcing managers than existing software platforms like Excel sheets, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, or Procure-to-Pay suites.
“As demand for transparency and fair-trade practices grows, organizations must strengthen their supply chains to protect their reputation, profitability, and long-term trust,” Malin Schmidt, founder & CEO of Kodiak Hub, said in a release. “By embedding AI-driven insights directly into procurement workflows, our platform helps procurement teams anticipate these risks and unlock major opportunities for growth.”
Here's our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.
For the sixth consecutive year, dedicated contract carriage and freight management services provider Transervice Logistics Inc. collected books, CDs, DVDs, and magazines for Book Fairies, a nonprofit book donation organization in the New York Tri-State area. Transervice employees broke their own in-house record last year by donating 13 boxes of print and video assets to children in under-resourced communities on Long Island and the five boroughs of New York City.
Logistics real estate investment and development firm Dermody Properties has recognized eight community organizations in markets where it operates with its 2024 Annual Thanksgiving Capstone awards. The organizations, which included food banks and disaster relief agencies, received a combined $85,000 in awards ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
Prime Inc. truck driver Dee Sova has donated $5,000 to Harmony House, an organization that provides shelter and support services to domestic violence survivors in Springfield, Missouri. The donation follows Sova's selection as the 2024 recipient of the Trucking Cares Foundation's John Lex Premier Achievement Award, which was accompanied by a $5,000 check to be given in her name to a charity of her choice.
Employees of dedicated contract carrier Lily Transportation donated dog food and supplies to a local animal shelter at a holiday event held at the company's Fort Worth, Texas, location. The event, which benefited City of Saginaw (Texas) Animal Services, was coordinated by "Lily Paws," a dedicated committee within Lily Transportation that focuses on improving the lives of shelter dogs nationwide.
Freight transportation conglomerate Averitt has continued its support of military service members by participating in the "10,000 for the Troops" card collection program organized by radio station New Country 96.3 KSCS in Dallas/Fort Worth. In 2024, Averitt associates collected and shipped more than 18,000 holiday cards to troops overseas. Contributions included cards from 17 different Averitt facilities, primarily in Texas, along with 4,000 cards from the company's corporate office in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales have seen slow and steady growth, as the vehicles continue to gain converts among consumers and delivery fleet operators alike. But a consistent frustration for drivers has been pulling up to a charging station only to find that the charger has been intentionally broken or disabled.
To address that threat, the EV charging solution provider ChargePoint has launched two products to combat charger vandalism.
The first is a cut-resistant charging cable that's designed to deter theft. The cable, which incorporates what the manufacturer calls "novel cut-resistant materials," is substantially more difficult for would-be vandals to cut but is still flexible enough for drivers to maneuver comfortably, the California firm said. ChargePoint intends to make its cut-resistant cables available for all of its commercial and fleet charging stations, and, starting in the middle of the year, will license the cable design to other charging station manufacturers as part of an industrywide effort to combat cable theft and vandalism.
The second product, ChargePoint Protect, is an alarm system that detects charging cable tampering in real time and literally sounds the alarm using the charger's existing speakers, screens, and lighting system. It also sends SMS or email messages to ChargePoint customers notifying them that the system's alarm has been triggered.
ChargePoint says it expects these two new solutions, when combined, will benefit charging station owners by reducing station repair costs associated with vandalism and EV drivers by ensuring they can trust charging stations to work when and where they need them.
New Jersey is home to the most congested freight bottleneck in the country for the seventh straight year, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.
ATRI’s annual list of the Top 100 Truck Bottlenecks aims to highlight the nation’s most congested highways and help local, state, and federal governments target funding to areas most in need of relief. The data show ways to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth, according to the researchers.
The 2025 Top Truck Bottleneck List measures the level of truck-involved congestion at more than 325 locations on the national highway system. The analysis is based on an extensive database of freight truck GPS data and uses several customized software applications and analysis methods, along with terabytes of data from trucking operations, to produce a congestion impact ranking for each location. The bottleneck locations detailed in the latest ATRI list represent the top 100 congested locations, although ATRI continuously monitors more than 325 freight-critical locations, the group said.
For the seventh straight year, the intersection of I-95 and State Route 4 near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee, New Jersey, is the top freight bottleneck in the country. The remaining top 10 bottlenecks include: Chicago, I-294 at I-290/I-88; Houston, I-45 at I-69/US 59; Atlanta, I-285 at I-85 (North); Nashville: I-24/I-40 at I-440 (East); Atlanta: I-75 at I-285 (North); Los Angeles, SR 60 at SR 57; Cincinnati, I-71 at I-75; Houston, I-10 at I-45; and Atlanta, I-20 at I-285 (West).
ATRI’s analysis, which utilized data from 2024, found that traffic conditions continue to deteriorate from recent years, partly due to work zones resulting from increased infrastructure investment. Average rush hour truck speeds were 34.2 miles per hour (MPH), down 3% from the previous year. Among the top 10 locations, average rush hour truck speeds were 29.7 MPH.
In addition to squandering time and money, these delays also waste fuel—with trucks burning an estimated 6.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel and producing more than 65 million metric tons of additional carbon emissions while stuck in traffic jams, according to ATRI.
On a positive note, ATRI said its analysis helps quantify the value of infrastructure investment, pointing to improvements at Chicago’s Jane Byrne Interchange as an example. Once the number one truck bottleneck in the country for three years in a row, the recently constructed interchange saw rush hour truck speeds improve by nearly 25% after construction was completed, according to the report.
“Delays inflicted on truckers by congestion are the equivalent of 436,000 drivers sitting idle for an entire year,” ATRI President and COO Rebecca Brewster said in a statement announcing the findings. “These metrics are getting worse, but the good news is that states do not need to accept the status quo. Illinois was once home to the top bottleneck in the country, but following a sustained effort to expand capacity, the Jane Byrne Interchange in Chicago no longer ranks in the top 10. This data gives policymakers a road map to reduce chokepoints, lower emissions, and drive economic growth.”