Agility and GXO Logistics plan an expansion of the Digit humanoid deployment

Agility Robotics and GXO Logistics said today they are expanding their partnership to deploy Agility’s Digit humanoid robot at GXO sites in North Carolina and Tennessee.

“GXO was the first customer to put Digit to work in live operations under a commercial agreement, and the expansion to additional sites is the clearest signal yet that the value is real,” said Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility. “Customers are moving beyond asking whether humanoid robots can work to deciding where they can scale them. Years of experience performing real work in GXO operations have shaped how we build, deploy and support Digit, and we are focused on disciplined execution as we grow this partnership.”

Founded in 2015, Agility Robotics claimed to have more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation working with industry safety standards. The Salem, Oregon-based company recently won approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Churchill Capital Corp. XI as it prepares to go public.

In 2024, Digit earned Agility the inaugural RBR50 Robot of the Year award for being one of the first humanoids to enter commercial trials. It received the 2026 recognition for moving more than 100,000 bags for GXO last year. This month, the company chose Nyobolt for fast charging, expanded its partnership with NVIDIA, and said it plans to deploy Digit at an AGCO farm equipment plant in 2027.

GXO and Agility continue their collaboration

Spun off from XPO Inc. in 2021, GXO Logistics said it is “the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider.” The third-party logistics (3PL) provider has more than 150,000 employees across more than 1,000 facilities, totaling more than 200 million square feet (18.5 million square meters). The Greenwich, Connecticut-based company last month partnered with Exotec to automate Guess fulfillment in the Netherlands, and like Agility, its executives participated in keynote panels at last week’s RoboBusiness event.

GXO and Agility first deployed Digit in late 2023 at a facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia. The companies said it was the industry’s first commercial deployment of humanoid robots in live operations and the first robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) agreement for humanoid robots.

Since then, Digit has moved more than 100,000 containers at the Flowery Branch facility, demonstrating its ability to reliably perform repetitive material handling tasks in an active logistics environment. The robot uses the Agility Arc cloud-based fleet management and integration platform. It worked together with existing automation to move the boxes and place them on the conveyors.

“Innovation is most powerful when it provides practical solutions that create value for our customers and our people,” said Patrick Kelleher, CEO of GXO. “Our partnership with Agility Robotics has been defined by a shared commitment to turning emerging technologies into real operational benefits. Together, we have helped pioneer the use of humanoid robotics in the warehouse, and this expansion reflects our confidence in the technology’s ability to create measurable value for our customers and a better work environment for our teams.”

GXO Logistics has tested other humanoids

GXO has also tested humanoid robots including Apptronik’s Apollo and Reflex Robotics’ Reflex. In the company’s second-quarter earnings statement in August, Kelleher acknowledged that it had not yet used humanoids in manufacturing, nor had it produced a return on investment (ROI).

“So far we have carried out 45 pilot projects on humanoids. We will soon have a further pilot launch in Europe,” he said at the time. “We haven’t reached ROI on humanoids yet. I think it will take a couple of years to get there, but we’re seeing great progress with our partners around the effectiveness of that technology and the application opportunities it offers in the warehouse environment.”

GXO did not say how much it is investing in the Digit expansion or when and if it expects an ROI. The robot report has reached out to us and will share any additional comments or clarifications.

The partners plan to roll out Digit at multiple sites across the United States

Under the expanded agreement, Digit will support e-commerce fulfillment at GXO sites in Statesville, Tennessee, and Lebanon, Indiana. The companies said they expect to begin implementing Digit 4 in early 2027.

Digit 5, introduced by Agility last month, is designed with new legs, to operate safely close to people and to address a wider range of industrial workflows. GXO said it will migrate to Digit 5 ​​when it becomes commercially available.

“The expansion reflects GXO’s long-standing approach to advancing warehouse automation through practical large-scale implementation,” GXO said. “As an industry leader in advanced automation and physical AI, GXO partners with leading technology developers to test, refine and deploy emerging solutions in live operational environments. The expanded partnership highlights GXO and Agility’s shared commitment to accelerating innovation through real-world applications and continuous learning.”

Agility also highlighted that it has invested in infrastructure to produce, deploy and support humanoid robots at scale, including its 6,503.2 m² RoboFab facility to produce up to 10,000 robots per year. The company also expanded software and services capabilities, as well as announced plans for a new 5,000-square-foot facility in Pittsburgh to support commercial deployments.