Amazon is rolling out a new version of its autonomous warehouse robot, Proteus, that workers can talk to using natural language instead of specialized software. The company unveiled the upgrade as part of an accelerating push to automate operations across its fulfillment network, though it maintains the technology is meant to assist human employees rather than displace them. Proteus, which Amazon first introduced in 2022, is a low-profile, floor-level robot built for heavy lifting and shuttling large carts through warehouse aisles. Until now, directing the machines required workers to use dedicated coding-style software, but the AI-powered overhaul lets staff simply speak to them the way they would a colleague. "You tell it what needs to be done. It figures out the priority, the route, the timing," Scott Dresser, Amazon's vice president of Amazon Robotics, told The Verge. The next-generation Proteus will also operate across a far wider area than the current model, which Amazon says is limited to dock zones. According to the company, the new system can work "anywhere items need to be moved," including transporting inbound containers, shuttling goods between workstations, and supporting employees at both fulfillment centers and delivery sites. The robot is currently being tested in Amazon's labs, with a European deployment slated for the first half of 2027. The Proteus update is one piece of a broader robotics roadmap Amazon is laying out for the coming year. The company plans to expand Vulcan, its touch-sensitive robot, and a collaborative tote-handling system first piloted in Barcelona, to additional sites across Europe. Amazon has faced ongoing scrutiny over its automation strategy, with critics warning that rapid robot deployment could lead to widespread job losses, but the company insists the technology is opening up new roles rather than eliminating them. Whether that promise holds as Proteus and its robotic siblings scale across more facilities will likely shape the debate over automation in e-commerce for years to come.