Humanoids or robots designed to look and move like people, are beginning to take on real-world jobs in industrial settings. From warehouses to car manufacturing plants, companies are experimenting with robots that walk on two legs and use AI to make decisions.

Leading logistics company GXO is currently testing:

• Digit from Agility Robotics
• Apollo from Apptronik
• Reflex Robotics’ unnamed humanoid

Humanoids Take on Real Jobs

These humanoids are being piloted in real warehouse environments with early-stage tasks like moving containers and interacting with other robotic systems.

“We are going really broad and aggressive on the category,” said GXO’s Adrian Stoch. “It's because of where we see this going.”

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From Warehouse to Factory Floor

Many of the early adopters of humanoids are auto manufacturers. These facilities are already highly automated, making humanoids a natural progression.

Examples include:

• Ford, Agility’s first customer in 2020
• BMW, which used Figure’s humanoids to insert metal parts into car chassis
• Hyundai, which acquired Boston Dynamics in 2021 for $1.1 billion

Retailers like Amazon are also piloting humanoids like Digit in their warehouses.

Why Humanoids Make Sense—Sometimes

Benjamin Lawrence from CB Insights pointed out that humanoids are best suited to structured environments like warehouses and factories. Homes are more complex.

“In a home, you need to make sure that the humanoid is safe with grandma, with the kids, with the pets… that it doesn't accidentally knock over a candle and cause a fire,” he said.

The Tech Race: AI Meets Robotics

Humanoids are benefiting from advancements in AI, especially large language models and agent-based AI systems. Big Tech is taking notice:

• Google DeepMind is supplying models to Apptronik
• Tesla is building both its Optimus robot and the AI behind it
• Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang said, “The ChatGPT moment for general robotics is just around the corner”
  

The Investment Boom

Investor interest in humanoids is exploding:

• $1.2 billion raised in 2024 by humanoid robot makers
• $3 billion projected funding for the year
• Agility Robotics raised $400 million at a $1.75 billion valuation
• Apptronik raised $350 million in a Series A round

Challenges and Roadblocks

Despite all the promise, there are challenges to widespread deployment:

• High costs per unit
• Tech complexity
• Need for adaptability in different environments

“You need to have humanoids that are highly adaptable to every different warehouse,” said Lawrence.

Is the Human Form the Right Form?

Paul Miller of Forrester argues that replicating a human shape may not always be ideal. "A human worker in their job does a lot of different tasks… some tasks are best performed by a human being, others by software or automation.”

He suggests that tasks should be broken down and assigned to the best-fitting tech, rather than defaulting to a humanoid form.