North American companies ordered nearly 18,000 warehouse robots worth about $1.2 billion in the first half of this year, as logistics operators accelerated warehouse automation to cope with rising wages and consumer demand for faster delivery. Data from the Association for Advancing Automation showed orders rose 2% from the same period last year by unit volume and about 7% by value. Companies bought more than 36,700 robots last year, the highest number of orders since 2022, underscoring sustained investment in automated fulfillment capacity.