Digit in warehouses: what Agility Robotics has reported from real deployments

Agility Robotics reports that its Digit humanoid has moved more than 100,000 totes at a GXO warehouse in Flowery Branch, Georgia, and that Digit robots have logged more than 65,000 hours of combined operation across customer sites. The figures, published in October 2026, are among the few deployment numbers any humanoid maker has released. They are self-reported, though, and they cover narrow, repetitive tasks.

What Agility announced in October 2026

On 26 October 2026 GXO and Agility announced an expanded partnership. Digit will be deployed at two more GXO e-commerce fulfilment sites, in Statesville, North Carolina, and Lebanon, Tennessee, with work expected to start in early 2027. The companies say the new sites will start with the current model, Digit 4, and move to Digit 5 once it is commercially available.

The same release sets out the history behind the numbers:

• A proof-of-concept pilot began at Flowery Branch in late 2023.
• In June 2024 GXO signed a multi-year robots-as-a-service (RaaS) agreement, so it pays for the robots as a service instead of buying them outright.
• Digit's task there is to move totes and place them onto conveyors, working alongside the warehouse's existing automation.
• At Flowery Branch, Digit has moved more than 100,000 totes. The 65,000-hour figure covers all Agility deployments, not that one site.

The same day, Agility published a summary of its commercial activity. It lists GXO, AGCO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler and Mercado Libre as public customers. It also mentions more than 30 prospective customers in its pipeline and a factory in Salem, Oregon, called RoboFab, which the company says can build up to 10,000 robots a year.

Toyota and the move from pilot to contract

The clearest independent report of a pilot turning into a contract comes from Toyota. In February 2026 TechCrunch reported that Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada had contracted seven Digit robots, also under a RaaS deal, after a year-long pilot. The robots unload totes of car parts from automated tuggers at the plant that builds the RAV4. TechCrunch gave no performance figures for the Toyota deployment.

Other announcements are still at the pilot stage. On 20 October 2026, AGCO said it would run a Digit pilot at its Hesston, Kansas, plant, expected to begin in 2027. The tasks are sorting and stacking parts and placing totes into storage.

When you read these announcements, it helps to separate three things: signed commercial deployments, planned pilots and pipeline interest. They are often presented side by side.

What the numbers do and do not tell you

The tote count and the hours figure are useful. They show that Digit has done paid, repeated work in a live warehouse for well over a year, which is more than most humanoids on the market can show. But several things that an operations team would normally ask about have not been published:

• Uptime or availability: the share of scheduled shifts the robots actually worked.
• Interventions: how often a person had to step in, reset or recover a robot.
• Throughput: totes per hour compared with a human worker or a conventional conveyor solution.
• Fleet size: how many robots produced the 100,000 totes and 65,000 hours.

Without these, the totals cannot be turned into a reliability rate. 65,000 hours spread across a few robots over three years means something quite different from the same hours spread across a large fleet. The figures come from Agility and its customers. No independent audit of them has been published.

The financial numbers need the same care. Agility says it has more than $300 million in committed multi-year orders for Digit 5. Its merger announcement adds that this is potential value realised over time, depends on contractual milestones and product specifications, and is not current revenue. IEEE Spectrum calculated that these orders amount to comfortably under 1,000 robots.

Agility is also going public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI. The 30 October 2026 announcement gives an expected close of 4 November 2026, subject to a Churchill XI shareholder vote on 2 November. The combined company is due to trade on Nasdaq under the ticker AGLT.

Statements made around a listing are promotional by nature, so they deserve extra scrutiny. This article is not investment advice.

Safety: what Digit 5 is supposed to change

Agility calls Digit 5, unveiled on 15 September 2026, its first "cooperatively safe" humanoid, meaning it is designed to work near people rather than in separate areas. IEEE Spectrum's report on the launch explains how this is meant to work. As a person approaches, the robot avoids them, stops, or drops its load and lowers itself into a seated position, so that it cannot fall onto anyone. According to the same report, Agility says Digit 5 can lift 23 kg to a height of 2.1 m and operate for more than 20 hours a day.

Two partnerships support the safety work:

• FORT Robotics (announced 1 October 2026): a safety pendant with emergency-stop and enabling-device functions, on-robot communications, and an "Offboard Safety Bridge" that connects Digit to a facility's own safety systems.
• NVIDIA (announced 22 October 2026): Digit 5 will use NVIDIA IGX Thor for onboard computing and parts of the NVIDIA Halos safety platform in Agility's human-detection system. It will also be evaluated in NVIDIA's Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab, which covers safety-related software, AI components and cybersecurity.

None of the sources reviewed for this article reports that Digit 5 has a completed third-party safety certification against a published standard. The NVIDIA evaluation is described as something that will happen, not a result. The international standard written specifically for legged robots, covered in our article on ISO 25785-1 for legged and humanoid robots, is still being drafted. Until it is published and Digit 5 is assessed against it or a comparable standard, "cooperatively safe" remains the manufacturer's design claim.

Agility expects early-access deliveries of Digit 5 in the first half of 2027 and general availability by the end of 2027.

Lessons on reliability for any hired robot

Digit is an industrial robot. The sources reviewed for this article describe only industrial customers, and its warehouse figures say nothing directly about how a humanoid performs at a trade show. The pattern behind them still applies to any robot you hire:

1. Narrow tasks come first. Every reported Digit result involves one repetitive job in a controlled setting. Busy, unscripted spaces with the public are harder, not easier.
2. Pilots take time. GXO piloted Digit before signing a contract, and Toyota ran a year-long pilot. That is a long way from the one-day turnaround of a typical event booking.
3. Totals are not reliability rates. "Thousands of hours" means little without the number of robots, the uptime and the interventions behind it.
4. Safety depends on the setting. Today's deployments rely on defined work areas, emergency stops and integration with site safety systems. A crowd of visitors is a different setting entirely.

What this means for event organisers

• When a supplier quotes operating hours or past bookings, ask how many units those hours cover and how often a technician had to step in. Our guide on what happens if the robot fails on the day lists the backup terms worth agreeing in advance.
• Treat "cooperatively safe" and similar phrases as design goals unless the supplier can name a certification. Plan barriers, operators and stop procedures using our guide to robot safety at public events.
• Do not assume warehouse performance carries over. Check the Digit profile in our catalogue for what is actually available, and compare suppliers' operating and battery assumptions using our guide to comparing robot hire quotes like for like.
• For long shows, ask how charging is handled. Even a robot rated for long shifts needs a plan, as our guide on battery life and charging during long events explains.

On safety and liability, this article is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently asked questions

How many totes has Digit moved at GXO?

In October 2026, GXO and Agility Robotics said Digit had moved more than 100,000 totes at GXO's facility in Flowery Branch, Georgia. A pilot began there in late 2023, and a multi-year robots-as-a-service agreement followed in June 2024. The companies have not published how many robots did the work, so the total cannot be turned into a per-robot rate or a reliability figure.

Which companies use Agility's Digit robot?

In October 2026, Agility named GXO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler, Mercado Libre and AGCO as public customers. Their status differs. GXO and Toyota have robots-as-a-service contracts, and Toyota's covers seven robots, according to TechCrunch. AGCO's pilot at Hesston, Kansas, is expected to start in 2027. Agility also says it has more than 30 prospective customers in its pipeline.

Is Digit 5 certified as safe to work around people?

Agility describes Digit 5 as its first cooperatively safe humanoid. It is designed to avoid people, stop, or drop its load and sit down when someone comes near. The sources reviewed for this article do not report a completed third-party certification. Agility says Digit 5 will be evaluated in NVIDIA's Halos AI Systems Inspection Lab, and the dedicated legged-robot standard, ISO 25785-1, is still being drafted.

Can you hire Digit for an event?

Agility sells Digit through robots-as-a-service contracts for logistics and manufacturing work, and the sources reviewed for this article describe only industrial customers. Every reported result comes from a controlled warehouse or factory setting with a narrow task. Event organisers should check which humanoids suppliers actually offer for hire and should not assume that warehouse performance figures carry over to a public venue.

How this article was made: written by the humanoid4rent editorial team with AI assistance; every factual statement was checked against the sources listed below on 2026-10-31. Spotted an error? Write to info@humanoid4rent.com.