Amazon's latest Proteus robot responds to straightforward verbal commands and is set to arrive in Europe in 2027.

      The concept behind Amazon's latest warehouse robot is that it can be instructed through spoken commands. At the "Delivering the Future" event held on June 4 at the Dartford fulfillment center near London, Amazon introduced an advanced version of Proteus that responds to plain language, eliminating the need for technical commands or a programming interface. Additionally, the company announced plans to invest over €10 billion (approximately $11.6 billion) in its European fulfillment network in the coming years.

      The main change lies in its interface. "You tell it what needs to be done. It determines the priority, the route, and the timing," explained Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics, who referred to the robot as an assistant for moving materials.

      While the current Proteus, now operating at 25 sites in the US, is limited to dock areas and can only transport carts weighing up to 400kg, the new model is engineered to function throughout a fulfillment or delivery site, moving containers as they arrive and transporting them between workstations.

      The next-generation Proteus is still in the testing phase and is currently being piloted in Amazon’s labs, with plans to roll it out in Europe during the first half of 2027.

      This timeline coincides with the expansion of two other Amazon systems in the region: STARK, a collaborative tote-handling robot initially tested in Barcelona that will reach 15 European sites by 2027, and Vulcan, the company’s first touch-sensitive robot, which has moved from Spokane, Washington, to its facility in Hamburg, Germany.

      The financial commitment is significant. Amazon positioned the robotics initiative as part of a broader strategy to invest over €10 billion in modernizing European fulfillment, and it stated that it plans to increase its workforce in European fulfillment centers by 25,000 employees in the coming years.

      This headcount announcement addresses concerns regarding automation and job displacement, as the company asserts that robotics has generated new job categories in areas like reliability, maintenance, and engineering.

      The introduction of the robots coincides with a push for faster delivery. Amazon plans to open over 25 sub-same-day delivery locations throughout Europe this year, which will include sites in the UK and Germany, as well as expand its ultra-fast essentials service, Amazon Now, to Manchester and Birmingham.

      The company noted that same-day fresh-grocery delivery has now reached over 2,300 cities in the US and parts of Tokyo, with further expansions on the horizon. Furthermore, the next-generation assistant, Alexa+, is expected to launch in ten more countries in 2027.

      This investment is part of a much broader spending strategy. In February, Amazon projected a more than 50% increase in capital expenditures to $200 billion this year, joining its competitors in an infrastructure expansion driven by AI.

      In this context, the €10 billion investment for European fulfillment is a regional initiative rather than the main headline, but it represents a tangible development: a robot that, by 2027, workers in Dartford or Hamburg will be able to direct simply by verbal instruction. The true test will be whether it operates as effectively on a live warehouse floor as it does in a lab setting during the planned rollout in 2027.