China’s e-commerce giant JD.com is preparing for a future where packages are delivered by robots instead of people. The company’s founder and chairman, Richard Liu, expects robots will “sooner or later” take over deliveries from the company’s roughly 700,000 couriers.
“It will definitely be robots delivering packages. But I really don’t want our 700,000 brothers to go without food and without jobs,” Liu said at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Forum, according to the Financial Times.
He did not provide a more specific timeframe for the change. As part of the transition, Liu said JD.com has entered into agreements with about 120 schools to retrain couriers for new professions, including the repair and maintenance of robots.
The number of gig workers in China — including delivery drivers, chauffeurs, and factory workers on temporary contracts — is expected to reach about 320 million this year, according to Chinese researchers. At the same time, the youth unemployment rate stands at over 16%.