Although the victor only gets $25,000, there's potentially a lot of prestige involved. Amazon will no doubt be interested in doing business if there's a clear winner, and the techniques developed in the challenge could apply to other robots where a delicate touch is necessary. Either way, there's a real chance that Amazon will take one step closer toward highly automated shipping hubs. And that's not necessarily a bad thing for the human staff. While Amazon might end up replacing employees with robotic packers, such a move could also help people cope with crushing holiday workloads and let them focus on more exciting (or at least, less monotonous) tasks.