Amid warehouse staffing shortages, AI-powered drones and Meta glasses help visually impaired workers get the job done

Eric Knight, a manufacturing manager at Bosma Enterprises, uses Meta glasses to assist with inventory management.

Courtesy of Bosma Enterprises Warehouse jobs surge as e-commerce drives demand; 392,000 positions open in June 2023.

Bosma Enterprises employs AI tech to empower visually impaired workers in warehousing roles.

Gather AI's drone vision aids Bosma in inventory tasks, boosting efficiency and confidence.

The warehousing business is booming as e-commerce sales climb , but many of these sprawling facilities face a challenge after their walls are erected: staffing shortages.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' most recent data, 392,000 jobs were open in the warehousing and transportation industries in June, up by 87,000 from a year earlier.

High demand from e-commerce, more so than labor availability, is driving the need, Rick Hermanns, the CEO at staffing and talent management firm HireQuest, told Business Insider.

Warehouse employers must find new ways to attract and retain employees — or risk falling behind in fulfillment.

One strategy: step outside traditional recruitment techniques and consider previously untapped groups, said Jeff Mittman, the CEO of Bosma Enterprises, which provides workers for warehouses, among other supply chain services.

Bosma uses AI-based assistive technologies like Meta glasses , magnification software, drones, and screen readers to enable visually impaired employees to work on the warehouse floor.

More than half of the company's workforce is blind, and it's the largest employer of blind people in the state of Indiana, Mittman added.

"I have blind people throughout the organization, all the way from a first-line employee to me as a CEO, being a blinded veteran myself," Mittman told Business Insider.

He added that the biggest challenge to employing visually disabled workers is no longer technology, but "other people's perceptions of their capabilities." In addition to Bosma, organizations like IFB Solutions and LCI Industries provide warehousing and other supply chain services while employing people who are blind .

Inside Bosma's warehouse In 2024, one solution Bosma hadn't yet found was a way for visually impaired individuals to conduct inventory counting, the process of checking stock in the warehouse and ensuring it's accurate to system records.