Agility Robotics Takes Aim at Back‑Breaking Jobs

Speaking at MWC25 Doha, Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson argued the company’s Digit robot is meant to take on warehouse and logistics work that people either avoid or quickly leave, not to replace desirable jobs. She described the roles Digit targets as repetitive, physically punishing tasks such as lifting and stacking, noting that in the US logistics sector alone around a million such jobs sit unfilled, with churn high when they are staffed. By 2030, she said, that number could rise to about 7 million open positions.

Johnson said workers generally welcome handing off a few hours of daily bin-stacking or similar chores to robots, as it allows them to move into more varied and “creative” tasks on site. She pushed back on talk of near-term home robots making coffee or folding laundry, calling it hype and pointing to safety and technical hurdles. For now, Agility is focused on robots that can do paid, physical work in industrial settings, with any future move into homes framed as a longer-term outcome of improving AI and capabilities in commercial environments first.