In a world in which technology seems to be creeping into every facet of our lives – from AI telemarketing agents to robot waiters – our own precarious human position is becoming more and more apparent.

Given how fallible the human mind is, you have to wonder just how long it will be until we are completely replaced – particularly in the workplace – our quirks and idiosyncrasies that make us us ultimately deemed too costly to running a smooth and profitable business.

But if these words feel deeply unsettling in your stomach, a little relief is on the cards.

And that relief comes in the shape of the robots that Amazon have employed to try to compensate for the incredibly high rates of staff turnover in their fulfilment centers.

Spoiler alert: these robots aren’t coming for your job anytime soon.

You might be staggered to know that, according to an article in the New York Times, Amazon currently employ over 750,000 robots, with the majority of the machine workforce deployed in their fulfilment and distribution centers.

While that sounds like a high number, in comparison to the human figure it is relatively low. With over 1.5 million people working for Amazon across the globe, it is clear that the company is still heavily reliant on human skills.

And the reason for this is clear: robots are no match for humans in the areas where it really matters.

Though there are many reasons for hiring robotic workers, any attempt at justifying this pales in comparison to the employment of focused, discerning humans.

Sure, humans have their drawbacks if all you’re interested in is profits and efficiency. For example, we need meal and bathroom breaks, and – given many countries have solid employment rights – actually require paying, which robots don’t.

In the New York Times, DHL Global Chief Information Officer Sally Miller explained all these reasons and more for the increased reliance on robots in the company’s global operations:

“It doesn’t call in sick, and it can work for several hours. It’s a great solution.”

But despite all the innovation that is constantly improving the performance of robotic workers, they still lack the skills required for a true robot takeover.

Though the working conditions in Amazon’s warehouses mean that staff turnover is high, the humans are still the only workers that are capable of one, crucial task: targeted picking.

This means rifling through a box to locate the specific item a customer has ordered, then selecting it for packing.

Though Amazon’s ‘Sparrow’ robotic arm is great at choosing the item from the top of a shelf or box (also known as ‘top picking’) this isn’t enough for the company. Even Amazon’s huge warehouses aren’t big enough for each item to practicably have its own container; and customers being sent the wrong item by an unjudicial machine will hit the company where it hurts. Its profits will suffer and its customer base will wane.

This is reason enough for Amazon to keep relying on the skills of its human employees. For now, at least.

And although Amazon’s warehouses are becoming increasingly populated by robots – some with facial expressions to put their human colleagues at ease – they are still only capable of tasks like loading and unloading without supervision.

While robots don’t have the capabilities to discern one item from another, our jobs are safe. While they still require human supervision, are expensive to purchase, and continue to only excel at repetitive, menial work, they will remain little more than the colleague that you see now and then but are otherwise inconsequential to your day.

Because the truth is, humans are for the most part better at the jobs Amazon need filled.

They’re just not providing working conditions and benefits that entice people into those jobs, and keep them around when they actually arrive.

Sure robots are great, but if you want sharp human skills, how about you compensate them fully?

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