Exclusive: Inside Amazon’s brutal AI-centric app-ification of HR

At an Amazon warehouse in Northeast Ohio, Laura works the night shift, operating an order picker that puts her 40 feet in the air. “I’m a treasure hunter,” she says. “I use a forklift to go find stuff.” The warehouse has not yet adopted any of the cutting-edge robotics systems that are transforming other Amazon facilities—but automation is creeping in. In the 18 months since she started this job, Laura—who asked to use a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation—has seen a major change in the HR presence at her warehouse. At most Amazon warehouses, a team of HR employees used to be available on site to help workers resolve issues as they arise, reachable for most of their shift. But something changed this year. “Now it’s like HR is there on banking hours,” Laura says, noting that she never sees an HR employee over the weekend. “On night shifts, we’re lucky to see them one day a week.” Laura has already felt the effects of this change, which has forced workers like her to use an app to handle all HR concerns. When her cousin died last year, she tried to take a day off through the app, only to be told she needed to provide proof of kinship to get it approved. “The app kept blocking it, because I didn’t have a death certificate,” she says, which meant she had to track down an HR person who could assist. On another occasion when Laura was hospitalized, the app wouldn’t allow her to request a day off for medical reasons. She eventually ended up being off work for three days—which required her to apply for a leave of absence that took a month to be resolved because the app kept requesting additional medical paperwork. These days, if she does manage to track down someone in HR, “the first thing they ask me is if I tried to do it through the app,” she says. “But I’ve obviously already tried that if I’m looking for a human being.” Amazon has been explicit about its vision to become a leaner organization and use automation to fill in the gaps. “