The News
GXO will put Agility Robotics’ Digit humanoids to work at its Statesville, North Carolina, and Lebanon, Tennessee, warehouses starting in early 2027. Digit has worked at GXO’s Flowery Branch, Georgia, site since late 2023.
The details
GXO is expanding before humanoids pay off. In August, CEO Patrick Kelleher said GXO had run 45 humanoid pilots and was “a couple of years away” from a return on them.
GXO plans to deploy 20,000 robots in 2026. None in production will be humanoids.
The new sites will use Digit for e-commerce fulfillment, on repetitive material handling. They start on Digit 4 and switch to Digit 5 once it goes on sale.
At Flowery Branch, Digit has moved more than 100,000 totes onto conveyors beside existing automation.
Agility plans Digit 5 for 2027. Digit 5 is built to work safely near people. Early customers get it in the first half of 2027, and it goes on general sale by year end.
Tesla began early production of its Optimus humanoid in Fremont, California, and expects customer deliveries toward the end of 2027.
My notes
Results from these two sites will be Digit 4 results. The model built to work near people goes on general sale at the end of 2027, months after both sites are running. A DC that wants humanoids working beside its staff won’t learn much about that robot from them.
Digit’s only proven GXO job is feeding existing conveyors. At Flowery Branch, it loads totes onto lines that were already there. A site without that setup has no tested use to copy yet.
What’s next
Deployments at Statesville and Lebanon start in early 2027. Digit 5 reaches its first customers in the first half of 2027.
(Photo: Agility Robotics)
