Amazon has deployed over 15,000 robots and has hired 80,000 seasonal workers to help pack holiday orders in its fulfillment centers.  The hires were up substantially from the  70,000 seasonal workers the company hired last year (see "Amazon Adding 70,000 Employees"). 

The robots are made by Kiva, a warehouse technology company that Amazon acquired in 2012, and are deployed around the country.

Amazon is launching more advanced technology in its eighth generation fulfilment centers, which includes robots; Robo-Stow, a large robotic arm that moves large quantities of inventory, vision systems that enable the unloading and receipt of an entire trailer of inventory in as little as 30 minutes, and "new, high-end graphically oriented computer systems."   

Amazon is operating ten of the new fulfillment centers utilizing the eighth generation technology.