GXO Logistics and Agility Robotics said on Oct. 26 that they will extend their humanoid robot deployment to two more GXO warehouses in the United States, in Statesville, North Carolina, and Lebanon, Tennessee. The contract logistics provider plans to start using Agility’s Digit robots at the new sites in early 2027, building on a deployment in Georgia that the companies say has moved more than 100,000 totes.

At the two new sites, Digit will support e-commerce order fulfillment by handling highly repetitive material-handling tasks, according to the joint announcement. Deployments will begin with the current Digit 4 robot and move to Digit 5, Agility’s next-generation model, once it becomes commercially available.

The partnership dates to a proof-of-concept pilot that began in late 2023 at GXO’s site in Flowery Branch, Georgia. In June 2024, the companies signed a multi-year Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) agreement, which they describe as the industry’s first formal commercial deployment of humanoid robots in live operations and the first RaaS agreement for humanoid robots. At Flowery Branch, Digit has worked alongside existing automation to move totes and place them onto conveyors, managed through Agility Arc, the company’s cloud-based platform for running robot fleets.

“Innovation is most powerful when it delivers practical solutions that create value for our customers and our people,” GXO chief executive Patrick Kelleher said in the release. Agility chief executive Peggy Johnson said that expanding to additional sites is the clearest signal that the value of the robots is real.

Agility’s wider customer pipeline

In a separate announcement the same day, Agility said three enterprise manufacturers are now in paid programs with Digit: a global automaker that sells more than three million vehicles a year, an automotive technology and components developer, and a consumer products manufacturer. The company said the three have chosen not to be named.

Agility also listed other customers and pilots. AGCO agreed on Oct. 20 to a Digit pilot at its plant in Hesston, Kansas, with work expected to begin in 2027. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada signed a commercial agreement after a pilot, according to Agility, and investor Schaeffler is deploying Digit in automotive manufacturing. Latin American e-commerce company Mercado Libre is also listed as a customer.

The company said more than 30 prospects across manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, defense, logistics and consumer products are in active discussions or in its Customer Acceleration Program, which lets companies test Digit against their own requirements. It described two possible subcontractor engagements with a U.S. armed services branch as early-stage, with no agreements signed.

Agility said it has previously disclosed more than $300 million in committed multi-year orders for Digit 5, which it unveiled on Sept. 15. The company stressed that the figure represents potential multi-year value subject to milestones, not current-period revenue. It expects early customer access to Digit 5 in the first half of 2027 and general availability by the end of 2027.

Why it matters

For warehouse operators, the GXO expansion takes a humanoid robot from a single site into additional live facilities under a commercial service agreement, a step Kelleher said reflects GXO’s confidence in the technology’s ability to create measurable value for customers. The tasks remain narrow, centered on moving totes in repetitive material-handling roles, and the new sites will start with the existing Digit 4 rather than the newer model.

Capacity to build the robots is part of the pitch. Agility said its RoboFab plant, a 70,000-square-foot facility in Salem, Oregon, is designed for annual production capacity of up to 10,000 robots, and that Digit has logged more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation. The company is also in the process of going public through a business combination with Churchill Capital Corp XI (Nasdaq: CCXI), which it expects to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the combined company trading on Nasdaq under the ticker “AGLT.”

What to watch

  • The start of Digit 4 deployments at Statesville and Lebanon in early 2027, and the switch to Digit 5 once it is commercially available.
  • Digit 5 early customer access in the first half of 2027 and general availability targeted for the end of 2027.
  • Completion of the Churchill Capital Corp XI merger, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The caveats

Both releases are company statements and include forward-looking statements that the companies caution are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those of an emerging technology and of the pending merger. Neither release gives the number of Digit robots that will work at the new GXO sites or the number currently deployed. Three of the manufacturing customers are unnamed, and the $300 million order figure is not revenue.