Jabil discusses the pace of development and production of humanoid robots

While much of the attention on humanoid robots has been focused on entertaining demonstration videos and huge amounts of funding raised, the work of developing and finding a value proposition continues quietly. How are humanoids moving from prototypes to mass production? Jabil Inc., a provider of engineering, supply chain and manufacturing services, offered its perspective.

Companies preparing to increase production of humanoid robots include Tesla, 1X Technologies, XPeng and UBTECH. Jabil partners with robotics developers to bring their products to market at scale.

The St. Petersburg, Florida-based company has partnered with Apptronik to bring its Apollo humanoid into live production environments. Thomas Brown, senior director for engineering and technology, including digital commerce and robotics, at Jabil, responded to the following questions from The robot report.

Set realistic expectations for humanoid volume

How are investor and customer expectations towards mobile manipulators and humanoids evolving?

Brown: In terms of managing expectations, many customers have produced humanoids in small volumes, but we are entering a phase of tens of thousands, where it is no longer something that is manually assembled on site. You’re starting to get to where you need cost structure, manufacturability, and quality improvement. These are areas where Jabil can really add a lot of value.

When a robot is much more expensive, it can only produce a certain number for AI training data collection and needs more validation of customer use cases. We provide the ability to reduce the costs of their projects to actually reach that scale.

How does the current computing boom enable more capable physical AI?

Brown: Compute is now sufficient for many of the experiences you see in demos, but we need more compute at the edge. The NVIDIA Jetson series is a popular range for our customers developing their aspirations in the robotics space.

We’re getting more compute and memory, but pricing is a pain point in terms of scale. Foundation modelers are developing intelligence beyond that capability, but expanding it is critical.

We have seen Hyundai, Tesla and BMW funding and testing humanoids. What benefits do automotive partners bring to design for manufacturing?

Brown: Get the harnesses for the humanoids. It needs a hybrid of automotive-grade ruggedness with an extremely small form factor like high-quality consumer electronics.

Developers need to collaborate with partners for rapid iteration. In addition to sensing and computing, a wide range of power supplies are available that allow for replacement.

What are some of the challenges in bringing humanoids to market?

Brown: Before the smartphone, things were much more simplistic: you could simply build features based on cost and scalability. Now companies are resetting and diversifying their supply chains.

My company is working with major humanoid developers in the United States and abroad, but I cannot name them at this time.

Editor’s Note: Physical AI and humanoids are among the topics covered during the RoboBusiness 2026 session, which will be held on October 20 and 21 in Santa Clara, California. Register now to participate.

Where humanoids and mobile manipulators make sense

What are the commercial prospects for humanoids in factories and warehouses?

Brown: There are plenty of spaces in manufacturing where humanoids make sense. When you look at a production line today, most automation is designed for specific tasks, but the applicability of humanoids to a wide range of tasks changes the equation compared to a purpose-built line.

Many of these humanoid companies have done a good job working with end customers to gather clear requirements. This is a solid approach. In the consumer space, it’s still the sci-fi path of “I just want a robot to fold laundry” or whatever the vague use case is.

In terms of iteration, should humanoids match human capabilities or should developers aim for superhuman capabilities?

Brown: I think it’s more about having a super set of skills that you can apply in bits and pieces to other markets. You already see this with some humanoids, where they have a wheeled base instead of being bipedal. It’s a much easier problem to solve, and I would say it’s the same thing with having a fully embodied humanoid versus, say, a camera arm.

The company that wins can win all the other challenges, but the company that wins just one will struggle to climb to the top of the leaderboard. You see a lot of these companies pursuing the broader play. Maybe some of them will make it completely; maybe some of them won’t.

I would say it’s really the super-set approach that they can break down into more cost-optimized specific solutions, depending on the use case.

Do you see mobile manipulators as an intermediate step towards humanoids or more of a standalone form factor?

Brown: I definitely think there is a place for mobile weapons. Even traditional automation like a tender running at 1.5 mps [3.3 mph] it’s pretty fast. A humanoid going that fast would be awfully fast, let alone carrying a load.

There are simply different needs, depending on what the structure requires and what the existing line looks like. The humanoid will be an extremely flexible device, but it will not always be the right device. Traditional high-speed automation will still have an important role in the near future.

You mentioned consumer robots, when and if you think we can expect them?

Brown: Maybe in five years. It may take 20 years, but progress is progressing very quickly. If model development continues at the pace that it has and if computing continues at the pace that it has, we will certainly be present on the artificial intelligence and electronic hardware side.

There will be a market for more humanoid companies because there are such diverse needs. We are talking about production, consumption, hospitality, food preparation. There are many different spaces to attack, and developing policies in one area does not mean that you win in all the others.

There are so many different levels of performance you can put into actuators that it creates a lot of possibilities for people to fine-tune the solutions they want to pursue. Even in our factories we will have specific automation needs, as happens today.

Both humanoid robots and the surrounding spaces will evolve

While humanoids are intended to adapt to environments designed around humans, how might they influence the design of factories and warehouses?

Brown: As humanoid robotic fleets become ubiquitous, our assumptions about how we layout lines will change. If you’re able to define the layout on the software, send work instructions, hit the “Go” button, execute, and have humanoids pull out workstations, put on new end effectors for their arms, and pull supplies out the back, that fundamentally changes the way we look at manufacturing.

Lines are no longer the primary limiting factor. It’s simply about your creativity, the fleet of robots, almost like this programmable substrate for manufacturing, if you will. Down the road, we will definitely have more hybrid solutions.

Beyond the development of explainable AI, what about related concerns about the safety of humanoids?

Brown: For things like insurance, many robotic arms have safety certifications. There are regulations for stall distances, cages, etc. There is a huge amount of infrastructure built around end applications, so it will take some time for the industry to understand how humanoids work.

What are their failure modes? How do we certify these things in new environments? How do we understand what the model will do under certain conditions? Yes, there is a huge amount of work that will need to be put into these systems to get them to a place where we can really rely on them like we can with current automation solutions.

Companies are starting to monitor legislation and develop safety standards. Existing ones will need to be expanded to govern how these devices operate in commercial spaces, consumer spaces and more.

I’m quite optimistic about what the future holds. I see that a lot of progress has been made and I think there are great things in store for us. And I love working with our customers in this space, helping them lower prices and improve functionality.