Amazon.com Inc. has long used robots to help humans move merchandise around its warehouses. Now automation is transforming Amazon’s white-collar workforce, too.

The age of the omnichannel is all about options. Customers buying online should be able to receive their purchases in any way they choose — at home, work, a designated retrieval point, or direct from the store. Or so goes the theory.

Consumer preferences are shifting. More and more, shoppers are favoring the convenience of online shopping over the in-store experience. As retail tilts more toward online sales, delivery becomes one of the few remaining face-to-face touch points with end customers.

Even after winter storms left East Coast harbors thick with ice, some of the country's top chefs and trendy restaurants were offering sushi-grade tuna supposedly pulled in fresh off the coast of New York.

Artificial intelligence promises to have a profound impact on the way in which shippers and carriers do business together. Assuming, of course, that they’re able to make use of the wealth of data that the technology offers.

On the Model 3 body line on a Tuesday afternoon in early June, everything is still. Tesla Inc. is just coming off a week of downtime during which workers added a new production line, improved ventilation after a fire in the paint shop, and overhauled machines across the factory. But even after the changes, there are kinks to work out.