By 2030, half of all new warehouses in developed markets will open as robot-centric facilities. Humans? Optional for routine work. That’s the stark forecast from Gartner , issued April 13, 2026. Supply chain leaders face rising labor costs and workers shunning repetitive tasks. Robots now anchor operations, with AI directing fleets in real time. Abdil Tunca, senior principal analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, puts it plainly. “AI continuously optimizes warehouse environments in real time, shifting them from static structures into agile systems that adapt as demand changes,” he said, as quoted in TechRadar . “This changes how CSCOs think about designing warehouses for scalability, from settings that primarily rely on human labor to environments that maximize the ability to orchestrate robotic fleets.” Warehouse blueprints flip. Fixed racks and human paths give way to layouts built for autonomous mobile robots, pallet shuttles, and goods-to-person systems. And the shift accelerates.…