Agility's Humanoid Robots Will Revolutionize Your Spanx Experience

The humanoid robotics industry has largely been defined by promises and pilot projects to date. While these initiatives are crucial for the future implementation of new technologies, they often involve a limited number of robots and rarely evolve into substantial applications. However, on Thursday, Agility Robotics announced a significant step forward by formalizing a partnership with logistics giant GXO after a successful pilot program.

Digit, Agility's advanced humanoid robot, will initially be tasked with transporting plastic totes within a Spanx factory in Georgia. This is not a euphemism—it’s a genuine deployment. Although neither company has disclosed the exact number of bipedal robots involved in handling boxes and placing them on conveyor belts, the fact that they haven’t shared this information suggests a tentative scale, likely on the smaller side. If it were in the range of tens or hundreds of units, both parties would likely be keen to highlight those figures.

The robots are introduced as part of a RaaS (robots-as-a-service) model, meaning they are leased rather than purchased outright. This approach allows clients to avoid hefty upfront costs associated with deploying such sophisticated systems while still benefiting from ongoing support and software updates.

GXO began piloting Digit robots last year and has also recently engaged in a pilot agreement with one of Agility’s major competitors, Apptronik. The impact of these two initiatives on each other remains unclear.

Peggy Johnson, who took over as Agility’s CEO in March, emphasized the company's commitment to delivering ROI—an essential focus in an industry where results often remain largely theoretical. "There will be many firsts in the humanoid robot market in the coming years, but I'm incredibly proud that Agility is the first to deploy actual humanoid robots at a customer site, generating revenue and addressing genuine business challenges," Johnson noted. “Agility is solely focused on the one metric that truly counts—providing value to our customers by putting Digit to work. This significant deployment sets a new benchmark for the entire industry."

Based in Oregon, Agility Robotics has consistently led the market in development and deployment, making it fitting for the company to reach this critical milestone early in the humanoid robotics journey. Although progress is evident, we are still in the nascent stages of this industry, and it remains to be seen who will emerge as the dominant market leader.

Meanwhile, Amazon began testing Agility systems in its warehouses last October, but so far, no formal announcement regarding future plans has been made by either company.