Logistics giant GXO is going big on humanoid robots

• GXO is testing humanoid robots from three different firms.
• Humanoids from Agility Robotics, Reflex Robotics, and Apptronik are learning specific tasks.
• There's lots of hype around humanoids, though there are some obstacles to their being used at scale.

GXO is putting humanoids to work.

The e-commerce logistics giant is testing humanlike robots made by three different robotics firms as it explores ways to bring the most cutting-edge tech to the warehouses it operates for its customers.

Adrian Stoch, GXO's chief automation officer, told Business Insider that he's optimistic about humanoids because they're the first kinds of robots that could theoretically complete multiple tasks in a warehouse, thanks to increasingly complex AI models.

They're not quite there yet. For now, the humanoids that GXO is piloting focus on completing one task each.

"We are going really broad and aggressive on the category," Stoch said. "It's because of where we see this going."

Digit, a humanoid robot made by Agility Robotics, is working at a GXO-operated Spanx warehouse in Atlanta, moving heavy containers from a 6 River Systems robot to a conveyor belt.

GXO is also testing Apptronik's Apollo humanoid with an undisclosed technology customer and Reflex Robotics' humanoid with a sports apparel customer. Reflex's humanoid brings empty corrugated cardboard from a robot made by Locus Robotics to a machine to be recycled. GXO is still in discussion about how to best put Apollo to use for the technology customer that has signed on to the pilot.

The company is also in conversation with four other vendors making humanoid robots, Stoch said.

"It's a risk-free proposition for them, and they're able to bring in their technology, implement it outside of the normal core process, and we provide feedback from our operators and my team," Stoch said. "Then we partner with the vendors to go through improvements."

GXO views its warehouses as a "lab environment" where it can provide direct feedback to robotics firms about how its technology functions in a real-world environment, Stoch said. While GXO has already partnered with other vendors on products like robotic arms and autonomous mobile robots, working with humanoids is a major part of this incubator program. It's seeing the most progress with the robot Digit so far.

GXO's humanoid pilot is still small, especially when considering the larger context of its business. GXO has more than 1,000 warehouses and employs more than 150,000 people, yet it has just two units of Digit working in one facility.

Before more humanoids are deployed, the robots' dexterity and ability to learn multiple tasks through AI need to be improved, Stoch said. Humanoids are also not yet at a point where they can be manufactured efficiently at scale.

"We're not at wide-scale deployment and commercial viability yet, but we're not 10 years away, that's for sure," he said.

Big Tech companies like Meta and Tesla have also invested in developing humanoids as AI has grown more sophisticated. These companies view humanoids as the next frontier of physical AI and believe that they will eventually perform many tasks that humans do.

There are plenty of skeptics of humanoids as well. Forrester analyst Paul Miller predicted at the end of 2024 that fewer than 5% of the robots entering workplaces this year will be able to walk.

"The big open question is: when is a humanoid form the right one?" Miller told BI. "A human worker in their job does a lot of different tasks. Some of those tasks are best performed by a human being. Some of those tasks are possibly best performed by software. Some of those tasks are best performed by a physical automation, some kind of robot.

"It's about working out how you break those tasks up."

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