GXO Expands Agility Partnership to Two More U.S. Sites, Starting With Digit 4

GXO and Agility Robotics are expanding their humanoid partnership to two additional U.S. sites, with Digit deployments expected to begin in early 2027. Robots will support e-commerce fulfillment in Statesville, North Carolina, and Lebanon, Tennessee, according to the companies' October 26 announcement.

Key Takeaways

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• GXO plans to add Digit at sites in North Carolina and Tennessee for repetitive material handling.
• Deployment is expected to start with Digit 4 in early 2027, with migration to Digit 5 when it becomes commercially available.
• The expansion builds on GXO's existing Flowery Branch operation. The companies have not disclosed robot counts, contract value or a migration date.

An existing customer adds sites

The agreement extends a relationship that began with a proof-of-concept pilot in late 2023. In June 2024, GXO signed a multi-year Robots-as-a-Service agreement, deploying Digit and Agility's Arc fleet-management platform at its Flowery Branch, Georgia, facility serving SPANX.

There, Digit works with existing automation, moving totes onto conveyors. The companies say the robots have handled more than 100,000 totes, a milestone we previously covered. The new announcement repeats that figure rather than providing an updated throughput total.

Agility CEO Peggy Johnson described expansion by its first commercial customer as evidence of practical value. For GXO, the stated aim is to extend humanoid automation into further e-commerce operations, with the new deployments focused on highly repetitive material-handling work.

An existing customer committing to additional locations is a meaningful step beyond an initial trial. The release does not, however, quantify labor savings, uptime or return on investment at the planned sites.

Digit 4 first, Digit 5 later

The rollout will begin with the current Digit 4. The companies plan to migrate to Digit 5 when it becomes commercially available, without giving a date for that transition.

That sequence matters because the next-generation robot has a separate delivery schedule. At Agility's October investor day, executives described early-access shipments in the first half of 2027 and general availability around the end of 2027 and early 2028. The GXO announcement does not establish that Digit 5 will be operating at the two new locations when deployment begins.

The news follows AGCO's agreement for a Digit pilot at its Hesston, Kansas, factory, also expected to start in 2027. The two announcements represent different stages of customer adoption: a planned manufacturing pilot at AGCO and an expansion of an existing warehouse relationship at GXO.