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Amazon and Walmart workers are raising concerns that AI-driven workplace systems are beginning to reshape HR decision-making, staffing, and employee management in ways that already affect their day-to-day working lives.
The debate has moved beyond fears about future automation towards how AI systems are already influencing performance management, scheduling, staffing, and workplace communication.
AI HR systems reshape workplace decisions
One Amazon warehouse worker, April Watson, says she struggled to secure workplace accommodations after suffering a concussion while working at a warehouse outside Atlanta.
Despite paperwork from a neurologist stating she needed to work at a slower pace, Watson said it took more than a month to receive accommodations because she could not easily connect with a human HR employee and was not initially given the correct medical form through Amazon’s internal AI assistant.
During that period, Watson was flagged for errors and later reprimanded for working too slowly.
“I told my operations manager: ‘This doesn’t make any sense,’” Watson recounted. “I thought that everyone thought I should go more slowly because I’m recovering. And he was like, ‘This is not our choice. This is Amazon.’”
Amazon defended its approach in a statement.
“Our employees have multiple ways to get support - from on-site HR and managers to digital tools that can help answer questions quickly. For something as important as a medical accommodation, we work directly with each person to make sure they get what they need.”
The issue is part of a wider shift identified in research from worker advocacy nonprofit United for Respect, which surveyed more than 200 Amazon and Walmart workers about AI and automation in the workplace.
While 60% said they were concerned AI could eliminate jobs within the next one to two years, 62% said their biggest concern involved HR decisions increasingly being outsourced to automated systems, according to the report.
“I think it really does speak to the nature of how technology is getting implemented in the retail setting, and specifically how Amazon and Walmart are deploying AI in their workplaces,” said Bianca Agustin, co-executive director of United for Respect, speaking to Fast Company.
Workplace automation changes human interaction
The findings point toward a broader HR challenge around workforce trust and employee experience as organizations accelerate AI adoption across operational systems.
At Amazon, workers now largely communicate with HR through AI assistants rather than on-site HR managers.
“Workers [reported] a feeling of loss of human interaction in the workplace,” Agustin says. “Everything is mediated by your app or by a computer that’s sitting in the middle of the warehouse.”
Turning workforce data into early warnings for high-cost employees
According to the survey, 56% of workers expressed concerns that increased AI use is reducing contact with managers and coworkers, while 54% said AI adoption had already contributed to staffing reductions.
“Lots of associates at both companies talked about understaffing and feeling like it was worse now that the companies are using AI to schedule,” Agustin said.
At Walmart, workers described growing reliance on AI systems to determine task management and productivity expectations.
“Now that we’ve gone to digital tags and a computer-generated time frame on these [modules], we’ve had to skip critical steps,” said Walmart associate Ava.
The same employee also raised concerns around training quality for new staff.
“When a new person is brought on to the job, we used to get hands-on training on the floor,” she said. “Now everything is done in front of a computer, and you’re tossed out on the floor.”
Amazon rejected suggestions that the survey reflected the views of its broader workforce.
“What we actually hear from our workforce is that robotics and AI are making their jobs safer, less physically demanding, and more interesting - and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Meanwhile, United for Respect is pushing for greater oversight of AI-driven workplace systems through shareholder proposals aimed at Amazon and Walmart.
“We wanted to give a platform to workers to begin to engage with investors who really haven’t thought about this yet,” Agustin explained.
As AI systems move deeper into workplace operations, employee concerns are no longer focused solely on job displacement. Increasingly, the debate is shifting toward who controls workplace decisions, how accountability is maintained and whether human oversight is disappearing from core people processes.
