Copyright © Emerce 2023

There’s no saying how long it will take, but that robots will eventually replace human couriers is certain.

So says founder Richard Liu of the Chinese retail giant JD.com, known in the Netherlands mainly for its sharply executed new pan-European e-commerce initiative Joybuy.

In the case of his own company, it concerns 700,000 couriers who drive online orders from warehouse to consumer all over the country.

Liu said this last weekend at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO forum in Shenzhen. The Financial Times was there and writes about it.

The delivery of parcels, meals and other work around online platforms is seen in China as something performed by low-skilled workers. Across the country, that now amounts to some 320 million labourers.

JD.com recognises the trend towards automating work and is setting up a system through which its own couriers can be retrained.

From a technological standpoint, robots are currently not yet capable of taking over people’s manual work. However, it does appear that this situation could look different in five to ten years’ time.

© The Content Exchange, source News