Human labour becoming increasingly obsolete.

 

Over the next few years, half of all new warehouses in developed markets will be designed as “robot-centric” facilities, with humans being optional, according to research firm Gartner, Inc

 

Chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) are accelerating adoption of intralogistics smart robotics to scale operations as manual labour warehouse models become increasingly obsolete.

 

“AI continuously optimises warehouse environments in real-time, shifting them from static structures into agile systems that adapt as demand changes,” Abdil Tunca, senior principal analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said.

 

 “This changes how CSCOs think about designing warehouses for scalability, from settings that primarily rely on human labour to environments that maximize the ability to orchestrate robotic fleets,” he said.

 

In these modern warehouses, human labour is required only for exception handling, rather than serving as the foundation of daily operations.

 

Over time, fixed warehouse infrastructure will give way to more software managed environments that continuously self optimise.

 

Gartner recommends supply chain managers take the following steps when designing robot centric warehouse environments:

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