A telling sign of the humanoid market maturing is that big, recognisable companies are now named as paying customers, including logistics and manufacturing firms such as GXO, Schaeffler, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada and Mercado Libre. Named commercial customers, together with published operating hours, separate genuine deployments from staged demonstrations.
For years the field ran on impressive videos; disclosed customers and usage data are a more reliable measure of progress.
What it means: when judging any automation claim, look for named customers and real operating figures, not just a polished demo. The companies putting robots into daily use are signalling that, for the right tasks, the economics have started to work.