GXO expands Agility Digit deployment to two more US warehouses
GXO Logistics plans to expand its Agility Digit deployment to two additional warehouses in North Carolina and Tennessee, with installations expected to begin in early 2027. According to The Robot Report, the expanded agreement will initially use Digit 4 for e-commerce fulfillment, with GXO planning to adopt Digit 5 when it becomes commercially available.
The expansion extends a relationship that began with a proof of concept at GXO’s Flowery Branch, Georgia, facility in late 2023. Forbes reports that the companies signed their multiyear robotics as a service agreement in June 2024, distinguishing the initial pilot from the subsequent commercial arrangement.
According to The Robot Report, Digit has moved more than 100,000 totes at Flowery Branch, working alongside existing automation to place containers onto conveyors. The installation uses Agility Arc, the company’s cloud based fleet management and integration platform. That provides an operational reference for the additional sites, though the economics remain a separate question.
Repeat business, with ROI still a hurdle
Agility CEO Peggy Johnson described the expansion as evidence of customer value. “GXO was the first customer to put Digit to work in live operations under a commercial agreement, and expanding to additional sites is the clearest signal that the value is real,” she said.
GXO’s own recent assessment was more qualified. During its second quarter earnings call in August, CEO Patrick Kelleher said the company had conducted 45 humanoid pilots but had not achieved a return on investment, according to The Robot Report. “We have not achieved ROI on humanoids yet. I think we are a couple of years away from that,” he said.
Kelleher also said at that time that GXO had not deployed humanoids in production, wording that sits awkwardly alongside the companies’ description of Digit’s commercial work in live operations. GXO has also tested Apptronik’s Apollo and Reflex Robotics’ Reflex, so its humanoid evaluation extends beyond Agility.
The repeat agreement is concrete evidence that GXO wants to continue deploying Digit, rather than proof that its humanoid economics are already settled. The Robot Report says GXO has not disclosed the investment in this expansion.
The planned hardware upgrade will broaden the technical scope. According to The Robot Report, Agility designed Digit 5 with new legs, operation near people and a wider range of industrial workflows in mind. GXO plans to begin the additional deployments with Digit 4 in early 2027, then migrate to Digit 5 once the newer model is commercially available.
Sources: The Robot Report, Forbes, DC Velocity
