As a basis for future growth, the Otto Group is entering into a long-term strategic partnership with Covariant, an artificial intelligence (AI) robotics company headquartered in Emeryville, California. Covariant's AI-controlled robots will automate a variety of manual fulfillment activities that previously required hand-eye coordination. By using the Covariant robots, the Otto Group plans to increase its operational efficiency, find solutions to the shortage of skilled workers and optimize the overall work in its fulfillment centers. The investment is intended to create new work profiles and attractive jobs, while increasing the overall performance of the facilities and ensuring more reliable delivery times - especially in times of high or fluctuating workloads.

"Logistics faces the challenge of being as cost-efficient as possible. By using a generalist AI, we can rethink our processes in the future and provide an answer to the massive shortage of labor. In times when handling is often outsourced to cheaper locations, we are particularly pleased to be able to remain close to our customers and strengthen our European, and in particular our German, location. The use of AI will be a key success factor in logistics in the future," says Kay Schiebur, Chief Services Officer of the Otto Group.

AI-controlled robot solutions

Covariant was founded in the USA in 2017 by specialists in modern deep learning-based AI. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of robotic picking, placing and sorting solutions. Each of these solutions is powered by the Covariant Brain, a universal AI platform that enables robots to see, think and act. The vision of this partnership is to install hundreds of Covariant's AI-driven robotic solutions in the Otto Group's fulfillment centers. The Haldensleben and Altenkunstadt sites will be the first. The robots will enable the Otto Group to autonomously manage dynamic and unpredictable fulfillment scenarios that could previously only be handled to a limited extent by automated systems with known data. This also includes the processing of constantly changing products. All Covariant robots learn independently of their location via a shared network. This ensures that findings and operational improvements are automatically transferred to the Otto Group's entire logistics network.

"This is a decisive step in the automation of the European e-commerce market - and represents one of the largest investments in a basic model for robotics to date," says Peter Chen, Chief Executive Officer of Covariant. "Even in times of a challenging market environment, it is important that future investments do not fall by the wayside," emphasizes Kay Schiebur. "We are investing here and now in our future viability and to strengthen our leading position in Europe."