Contrary to some predictions, humanoids didn’t take over warehouses in 2025. But the robots sure took over the headlines.
DHL, Tesla, and Amazon made waves with plans to deploy humanoids in their facilities. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang took the CES stage flanked by a dozen bipedal automatons, demonstrating how robots can navigate complex warehouse environments using physical AI.
Most of these deployments are still in the pilot stage, and it remains to be seen how much value they’ll deliver. There’s no question humanoids are versatile. Unlike a robotic arm or an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), humanoids can move and manipulate the way a human would, and perform a range of different tasks the way humans do.
Nevertheless, I don’t expect such systems to replace existing human or robotic agents. Instead, they’ll find a more niche role: exception handling.
Large, automated warehouses already have specialized robotic systems for high-volume, repeatable work. Sorters, shuttles, AMRs, and conveyors move products at speeds a humanoid can’t match. The weak spot isn’t throughput. It’s recovery from disruptions.