Group sees big role for robotics

JD.com Inc, China’s secondbiggest e-commerce player, plans to increase its sales 10 times in the next 12 years, but its payroll will remain unchanged or even be reduced, as the tech heavyweight steps up its efforts to use artificial intelligence technology and robots in the delivery sector.

“The first unmanned warehouse will be built before the Singles Day shopping festival on Nov 11 next year,” Liu Qiangdong, JD’s founder and CEO, said at Lenovo Tech World in Shanghai on Thursday.

Liu emphasized JD will make its businesses intelligent in the next 12 years. At present, more than 10,000 of its employees are engaged in technology R&D.

“Robots will play an important role in goods delivery in the future,” he said, adding that the company aims to have around 80,000 employees by that time.

The e-commerce giant has signed a strategic partnership deal with Lenovo to carry out cooperation in big data and AI.

JD has made great efforts to develop drone deliveries, according to Liu. Last year, JD successfully used drones to deliver online purchases to rural shoppers in Jiangsu province, kicking off the e-commerce giant’s use of unmanned aircraft for the final stage of the delivery process.

In November, it completed its first drone delivery in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi province, and started using drones regularly for package deliveries in the city on June 18.

The company also used robots and driverless cars for deliveries during the June 18 shopping festival. Its intelligent logistics center “Asia No 1” and the sorting centers which use robotics have gone into operation.

Yang Yaqiong, an analyst at market consultancy Analysis, said: “The total number of JD’s employees will drop and the talent structure will also change as the number of professionals specializing in technology and big data increases, but labor-intensive jobs, such as logistics and customer services, correspondingly decrease in number.”