Amazon has taken another major step towards enhancing its warehouse operations by hiring key talent from Covariant, an AI startup working to revolutionize robotic handling and picking.

This move mirrors Amazon’s acquisition of Kiva Systems in 2012, which sparked the company’s foray into warehouse automation.

The Covariant team, led by UC Berkeley professor Pieter Abbeel, has been focused on developing AI-driven robots that can manage a variety of physical objects with greater dexterity. The challenge of commercializing such advanced robotic technology has been significant due to high costs and stiff competition. However, with Amazon’s operational scale and data capabilities, this partnership has the potential to trigger a new wave of e-commerce automation, making it difficult for competitors to keep up.

Covariant’s technology is designed to handle the intricate task of grasping diverse items reliably, something traditional robotic systems still struggle with. Now, this expertise will be integrated into Amazon’s operations to improve its robotic manipulation systems in fulfillment centers across the globe. Amazon, which already employs hundreds of thousands of robots, aims to further reduce its reliance on human labor while speeding up the picking, packing, and sorting processes.

The deal follows similar moves by other tech giants, such as Microsoft and Google, who have been acquiring AI expertise to enhance their own innovations without purchasing the startups outright. With this new infusion of talent, Amazon is likely poised to introduce even more advanced automation in the near future, keeping it at the forefront of the global e-commerce industry.

While the long-term success of this partnership remains to be seen, Amazon’s history of innovation suggests that its fulfillment centers could soon be relying on far fewer humans for repetitive tasks, just as Kiva robots did in the past.