Robots need locations, barcodes and task queues — the same master data a WMS already owns. A hardware demo without that layer does not run a floor.
A person with a PDA and a robot with a gripper both consume jobs: go to a bin, confirm a scan, report an exception. If locations are fiction, both fail. Embodied AI does not replace the warehouse model.
Item codes, bin IDs, lot rules and "what does done look like" have to exist before anyone maps a fleet. Companies that skip WMS and buy a robot first spend the year teaching the robot their chaos.
ERP still owns the order. WMS still owns the bin. The robot posts events a WMS already understands: pick complete, short, damaged. New nouns for the same events create a second ledger.
If you are evaluating robots, start from warehouse software at /en/wms/. We will not publish pick-rate lifts we did not measure on your floor.
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