Junior Buyer

Zalando to install up to 50 AI-powered robots from Nomagic in its European fulfillment centers. The rollout of the smart pick-and-place robots will address the automated handling of shoeboxes, including two-piece and unsealed shoeboxes. By MMH Staff March 23, 2026 Zalando, a provider of fulfillment services and ecommerce platform technology, has annnounced its plan to deploy up to 50 AI-driven Nomagic robots across its European fulfillment network. This rollout of the smart pick-and-place robotics will address the automated handling of shoeboxes. Nomagic's Shoebox Picker is the AI perception and robot control system with an intelligent end-of-arm gripper designed for high-reliability handling of two-piece and unsealed shoeboxes. This leads to a secure process even for unsealed shoeboxes with separating lids, without taping, crushing or losing the lid. The robotic units specialise in item-level picking, scanning, and seamless induction into automated pocket sorters. "The testing phase with Nomagic proved that their robotics are an excellent fit for Zalando's logistics centres,," said Marcus Daute, Vice President Logistics Network at Zalando. "Following the quick and successful deployment of the first 10 units, we have decided to scale our partnership, gradually rolling out more robots as our network evolves. The sheer scale of our operations demands smart automation that works with our people, not alongside them. By delegating simple processes to AI-powered robots, we achieve the operational excellence our customers and business partners expect while supporting employees' growth." Advanced computer vision is guiding the physical hardware, allowing the robot to "recognise" the specific product type and its orientation in real-time, automatically adjusting its grip type and picking technique to suit each individual item and its orientation, Nomagic explained. "Zalando has a great team we collaborate with, both on a project management level and in the warehouses," said Kacper Nowicki, CEO and Co-Founder of Nomagic. "We highly value our partnership, their trust and especially their openness to implement the latest automation technology like the new Shoebox Picker. By combining the intelligence of AI with a physical system, it solves real-life physical challenges and turns one of the industry's biggest bottlenecks into a streamlined, automated process." The first units are already in use in Germany (Lahr, Moenchengladbach) and Italy (Verona). Additional robots will be deployed across Zalando's key logistics hubs in the Netherlands (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), France (Paris) and Zalando's newest fulfilment centre in Giessen (Germany), which is scheduled for its operational ramp-up later this year.

Zalando is deploying up to 50 AI-powered Nomagic robots across its European fulfilment centres, introducing a solution for automated shoebox handling. The robots, nicknamed "Richard", use computer vision and AI to recognise materials and shapes, adjusting their grip in real-time for item-level picking and sorting. Following a successful pilot achieving 100,000 picks daily, the rollout is underway in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and France. The robots feature specialised grippers that secure shoeboxes from two sides, preventing lids from detaching during handling—a longstanding automation challenge in fashion logistics. The technology aims to improve order accuracy and processing speed whilst allowing employees to focus on more technical tasks. Zalando's first ten units are already operational in Lahr, Moenchengladbach and Verona facilities.

Startup pushes enterprises to adopt quantum computing before it goes mainstream. A startup is helping enterprises run quantum computing applications today, preparing businesses for future breakthroughs before the technology becomes widely available. Mar 17, 2026 - 19:16 Eighteen months after selling his startup to chipmaker AMD for $665 million, Finnish entrepreneur Peter Sarlin has stepped down as CEO of the unit now known as AMD Silo AI. He is now serving as chairman of two new ventures: the physical AI lab NestAI and Qutwo, an AI startup focused on helping companies prepare for the coming age of quantum computing. Backed entirely at this stage by Sarlin's family office, PostScriptum, Qutwo describes itself as "an AI lab for the quantum era." But rather than waiting for quantum computing to mature fully, the company is already working with enterprise customers. Among them is European fashion retailer Zalando, with which it is building what the two companies describe as "lifestyle agents," AI tools meant to go beyond basic product search and proactively recommend products and experiences. Qutwo is built on the idea that AI is approaching an efficiency ceiling that quantum computing could eventually help overcome. Still, the company is not betting on exactly when that shift will happen, Sarlin said. Instead, it is developing Qutwo OS as an orchestration layer that would enable companies to transition from classical computing to quantum computing, while also leveraging hybrid computing systems along the way. Through PostScriptum, Sarlin has invested in Finnish quantum companies IQM and QMill, and he is among a growing group of investors who believe quantum computing will ultimately outperform classical systems across a broad range of industrial applications while also helping reduce AI's energy demands. At the same time, he believes the earliest practical uses will require mixed hardware environments and that enterprises would prefer to focus on business problems while Qutwo OS handles the underlying routing. In that sense, one advantage of the middle-ground approach known as "quantum-inspired" computing is that it is already workable today, because it relies on classical hardware while simulating quantum behaviour, thereby sidestepping many of the obstacles that still hold back quantum hardware. Meanwhile, Qutwo OS is being designed to remain flexible, supporting both quantum and non-quantum algorithms and chips. Qutwo's team includes experience from both the quantum and AI worlds. On the quantum side are IQM co-founder Kuan Yen Tan and board member Antti Vasara, who also serves as chair of SemiQon, a Finnish semiconductor startup focused on quantum chips. The enterprise and AI side is represented by Sarlin himself and Kaj-Mikael Björk, a former co-founder of Silo AI. Pekka Lundmark, the former CEO of Finnish telecom giant Nokia, has also joined Qutwo's board. Across both fields, the company says its team includes more than 30 quantum and AI scientists, and Sarlin has made clear how he sees the company's identity. "We're building for the quantum world, but Qutwo is an AI company," he said, adding that Qutwo is "pushing AI workloads from classical to quantum." That positioning means Qutwo's potential customer base could be fairly broad. In addition to Zalando, the company has also launched a joint quantum AI research initiative with OP Pohjola, a major Finnish financial services provider. From the beginning, Qutwo has taken a commercially driven approach and already has what Sarlin described as "large design partnerships which are in the tens of millions." These design partnerships, in which a vendor develops its product alongside enterprise customers, allow Qutwo to better understand what customers want as it builds its platform. They also reflect a bet by enterprises seeking to secure an early position if quantum computing reaches a meaningful commercial scale.