Amazon has announced a €700 million+ investment in robotics and AI-powered technologies across Europe, using its Innovation Lab to develop and test new tech, and it will soon open the lab to the public.

Based in Vercelli, in northern Italy, the Innovation Lab serves as the hub for the global Mechatronics & Sustainable Packaging team. 

This team was formed in 2019 and by the end of 2024 will have been responsible of the installation of over 1,000 new robotics and AI-powered innovations throughout Amazon’s European fulfilment centre network, accounting for that investment of more €700 million. 

It has now opened the doors of the Innovation Lab, revealing advances that should use robots to speed up delivery and generally increase the efficiency of the company’s fulfilment centres across Europe, including the UK.

Its new robots include the Universal Robotic Labeller (URL) that will save time and reduce the manual labour, as well as reducing waste and energy consumption.

Some robots at the lab have already been more widely deployed while others will be rolled out in the years ahead.

Europe is a key market for Amazon and although North America is its largest market overall, Germany and the UK are in second and third place, respectively.

Amazon global robotics director Stefano La Rovere said: “We are proud to open the doors of our lab, not only as a hub of innovation for Amazon, but to encourage customers, schools, and start-ups to be inspired and learn about the potential for technologies to create a better and safer future of work.”

The company is shouting very loudly about its robotics advances and from this year the lab will be open for public tours, “offering customers, schools, or anyone interested, the opportunity to discover how Amazon creates and develops innovations”.

Meanwhile the company also announced that one in two Amazon shipments in Europe are now delivered without a box, thanks to packaging reduction innovation.

It’s increasingly using reduced, recyclable delivery packaging, such as a paper bag or cardboard envelope or – in the case of 700 million shipments since 2019 – no added packaging at all.