Humanoid robots meant to fill manufacturing labor gaps

Agility Robotics is deploying its bipedal robot Digit at facilities including Amazon, Schaeffler Group, GXO and Toyota's plant in Canada. The company says Digit will take on highly repetitive tasks; at Toyota's Ontario plant three Digit bots will move totes — plastic containers — from one spot to another.

Daniel Diez, Agility's chief business officer, says manufacturers worldwide simply can't find people to do mundane, repetitive work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted more than 400,000 manufacturing job openings in the US as of December 2025, and a 2024 survey by The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte found talent retention remains a top concern.

Diez warned there are "compounding effects" to the labor gap, noting a significant share of the manufacturing workforce is 55 and over — a little over 25% per the BLS — and approaching retirement.

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