ATLANTA – October 29, 2026 -- One in four supply chain leaders wish they had chosen a different automation path, and 94% say switching providers would be prohibitively expensive, according to a survey of 250 North American decision-makers released by warehouse robotics provider Exotec. Most buyers are therefore locked into their chosen system for 10 to 15 years.
Larger companies report more underperformance, not less
Companies with more than $1 billion in revenue were more likely than smaller firms to say their most significant automation investment underperformed (21% vs. 13%). Exotec traces regret to three pre-implementation decisions: underestimating lifetime ownership cost, leaving accountability for issue resolution unclear, and automating before the operation was ready.
Total cost of ownership overshoots for 65% of buyers
Seventy percent of respondents say undisclosed costs have raised their annual maintenance spend. Among those whose systems underperformed, 43% said total costs ran 26% to 100% above expectations.
Multi-vendor designs blur responsibility for performance
Sixty percent of respondents had a system designed by more than one company. One in seven say they have not seen the benefits of automation because no vendor takes full responsibility for performance. Buyers who worked directly with the equipment manufacturer rated root-cause identification speed higher than other buyers (75% vs. 69%).
"Regret is rarely about the technology itself," said Romain Moulin, CEO and co-founder of Exotec, who argued that the best results come when a single partner owns system performance from design onward.
Low-cost providers draw the most regret
Buyers who chose low-cost providers were nearly five times as likely to say they picked the wrong vendor (24% vs. 5% of other buyers). Only 52% of them rated root-cause identification as fast, against 74% of other buyers. Across all respondents, 59% say low-cost providers hide costs and common complications upfront, and 22% say their vendor failed to deliver what was promised during the sales process.
Readiness gaps hit 27% of buyers; early adopters fare best
More than a quarter (27%) say their operation was not ready when they invested. Early adopters with dedicated automation teams and leadership oversight rarely regretted their choice: 1% say they picked the wrong vendor, compared with 11% of fast followers.
Automation is a baseline, AI maturity lags, humanoids trail
Ninety-one percent of supply chain leaders call automation a basic requirement, and 86% of those who have automated say they enter peak season more confident than before. Although 99% of organizations use AI in some form, 24% are still in the pilot phase.
On humanoid robots, 77% of respondents trust purpose-built fulfillment automation to deliver better ROI over the next five years, though 48% say they are optimistic about implementing humanoids.
The online survey was prepared by Method Research and distributed by RepData among full-time supply chain decision-makers in the United States and Canada. Data was collected August 17 to 31, 2026.