Why More Robots Can Mean More Workplace Injuries

Adding robots to a warehouse might seem like an obvious way to make work safer. But federal workplace injury data tells a more complicated story. In some of the nation’s most automated warehouses, injury rates have actually been higher than at facilities with fewer robots.

The reason is not that robots are colliding with workers.

Instead, safety experts say the biggest risk comes from the faster pace of work that automation can create.

The trend has been most visible at Amazon, which now operates more than one million robots in its fulfillment centers. According to an analysis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records by The Washington Post, Amazon warehouses have reported serious injury rates that were nearly twice those of warehouses operated by other companies.

A 2026 study by the Strategic Organizing Center, a labor coalition, found that Amazon’s robotic sorting centers recorded about 7.3 serious injuries for every 100 workers. Comparable warehouses without the same level of automation reported about 5.7 serious injuries per 100 workers.

So why would adding robots increase injuries?

The answer appears to be speed.

Robots can bring products to workers much faster than employees can when retrieving them by walking through warehouse aisles. As a result, productivity expectations often increase as well.

According to the investigative newsroom Reveal, employees at some robotic fulfillment centers were expected to process roughly 400 items per hour. Older warehouses typically required workers to handle about 100 items per hour.

That faster pace can lead to repetitive physical movements throughout an entire shift.

OSHA has identified repeated bending, constant reaching, and prolonged standing as common causes of strains, sprains, and other musculoskeletal injuries—the types of injuries that account for many incidents in the warehouse workplace.

Employers argue that automation also improves safety by removing some of the most physically demanding tasks.

Amazon says newer robotic systems deliver products at waist height, reducing the need for workers to bend or reach overhead. According to the company, those improvements have helped lower strain-and-sprain injury rates in some facilities.

Safety specialists generally agree that robots can reduce physical risks. However, they caution that those benefits can disappear if companies use the technology primarily to increase production targets rather than reduce worker strain.

In the end, the technology itself may not be the deciding factor.

Robots can make warehouses safer, but only if productivity goals are balanced with the physical limits of the people working alongside them.