Fall 2026 Product Announcement

CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL OCTOBER 13th

NOTE: The information in this article is intended for internal partner training purposes only.
For external use, please refer to the approved materials provided to you — including our live, always up-to-date website, official sales collateral, or reach out to our BDM team for additional resources and demo support.

As shared in AutoStores' Fall 2026 Product Announcement there are multiple product  news from Pio, in this article we are taking a closer look at what each item is, how to position, sell and market it. 

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to:

Craig - Pio's Senior Sales Manager at craig@pio.com
Trine  Pio's Marketing Manager: trine@pio.com

Quick overview of launch components

Together, these four pieces move Pio from an ecommerce and 3PL product into a platform that spans into industrial, and retail. In addition, you as partners can now sell and deploy the Pio App on a more flexible commercial model.

Pio Pal (Pio + VersaAI)

VersaAI launched last spring. Pio Pal* packages it as a turnkey module that bolts onto products in the Pio Lineup (P400 and P600), pre-integrated with the Pio App, with no separate integration project required. It's offered to Pio customers as an additional module at an additional monthly charge. The goal: bring warehouses a large step closer to lights-out operation.

Why now:

The Pio target segment doesn't have access to robotic piece-picking (RPP) technology today. Customers are facing rising delivery-time expectations, underutilized automation that erodes ROI, labor cost and access, and capacity constraints during peak demand, Pio Pal is built to address all four.

How it works:

Pio Pal* pre-picks orders by combining multiple order lines into a single bin, which is then sent back into Pio ready for dispatch. Operators receive consolidated orders that pack in a fraction of the time versus regular picking.

*Available to the market from Q1, 2027

Performance example:

Based on 3 order lines per order:

180 Order lines picked & packed per operator/hour without Pio Pal.
vs
540 Order lines picked & packed per operator/hour with Pio Pal 

=3x throughput gain, with no added labor

This is achieved by keeping robots and ports working around the clock, using the system to its full potential.

This performance data is based on an average of 3 order lines (OL) per order. Throughput gains scale with picking speed, not a fixed multiplier, so the exact gain will vary depending on the customers order profile.  For instance, with an average of 10 OL per order, the theoretical throughput could reach up to 1,800 OL/hour. In practice, this depends on factors like pick density, port availability, and order mix, but it illustrates that the more order lines per order, the greater the potential benefit from Pio Pal.

Pio for Industrial

Pio for Industrial brings AutoStore into manufacturing and parts storage at a new entry point in the segment, competitively priced, with higher performance, greater reliability, and more flexibility to scale than typical industrial alternatives.

In addition, we built Pio for how industrial environments actually work.

What's new (read more in our help center via the links):

- Batch/lot tracking, built for regulated and traceability-sensitive inventory
- Standalone operation with no required software integration, inventory and orders can be run entirely through simple CSV imports, without writing code
- Native work order support, so users can create and execute work orders directly inside the Pio App
-Kit functionality, which combined with work orders makes it straightforward to define assembly kits and execute production runs in one system
- Improved shelf picking, store large items outside of the Pio grid, and use the Pio app to pick and/or consolidate items stored in shelf locations alongside grid-stored inventory.

Results:

A U.S. automotive parts manufacturer has been running Pio in their operation for some time as our pilot customer for the industrial segment and these are the results they are seeing:

• Picking more than 330 order lines per hour

• Storing 5 times more inventory in the same footprint.

• They have gone from a 2 shift operation with the owner working on weekends down to only one shift.

The customer has chosen to stay anonymous, viewing Pio as a competitive advantage they don't want to disclose publicly, but you can learn more about their operations and experience using Pio below:

Pio for Retail

As retail faces rising cost per square meter and growing pressure to deliver a strong in-store customer experience, Pio's compact footprint is a great fit for in-store and back-of-store use.

Staff can retrieve products quickly, or customers can scan items in-aisle and have their order packed by the time they reach the register.

Results:

• Reduce storage footprint by 50-80%
• Increase SKU count per sqm
• Zero shoplifting on goods stored in Pio
• 80% reduction in receiving and shelf replenishment time
• 99.9% picking accuracy

Together with Toyota, we validated the Pio in store concept with Goody Goody, a large liquor retailer in the US, cutting their store space and staffing needs in half.

In addition, they tell us that Pio has enabled a whole new customer experience by allowing floor staff to spend more time with customers and less time searching for products.

Another key benefit is increased stock accuracy and reduced theft and shrinkage, which is a major challenge for many retailers in the US.

This means we are now ready to roll out Pio in Goody Goody stores across the US, and to all retailers facing similar challenges.

See their story below:

New Commercial Model: Standalone Pio App

We are getting a lot of requests from partners to deploy the Pio App independently of our Robotics-as-a-Service offering. This is especially relevant in industrial and retail, where customers often prefer to own the hardware outright.

Therefore the Pio App is now available as a standalone add-on for any AutoStore installation. With this we enable you as partners to offer more competitive software pricing.

It is probably the most intuitive and accessible option available on the market due to two major things:

• Ease of use: the app is designed so a new operator can be picking orders within minutes.
• Ease of integration: built simply enough that customers can, in most cases, set up their own integration to Pio, removing the months-long, costly integration projects often needed.

Not a new or unproven product
The Pio App has already been sold into more than 50 customer systems worldwide across a wide range of use cases. It's cloud-based, API-first, and built to maximize the performance of an AutoStore system, so customers get proven workflows and best practices from day one rather than a custom build from scratch.

We've also piloted this SaaS model directly with partners already, and have now signed our first customer under it: StrongPoint.

Pricing
The Pio App follows the same pricing model as standard Pio: a monthly base fee plus a capacity fee based on number of robots.

• Prices shown are end-customer prices.
• Partners receive a 10% discount on both the base fee and the capacity fee.
• These prices include the recurring AutoStore Essentials charge; the Control Software line item in the Bill of Materials remains unchanged in a standard AutoStore sale.

Sales process and support

Commercially, this works much like any other AutoStore sale, with a slightly revised Final Offer covering the Software-as-a-Service terms. Support follows the same model as standard Pio installations, with second-line software support provided through established AutoStore support channels. Updated documentation and templates will be available The Portover the coming weeks.

Important: verify the use case before signing
While the Pio App can be deployed with any AutoStore installation, partners must contact Pio before signing with the end customer so we can verify the use case is a good fit for the standardized Pio App. Note also that there are some restrictions on the port side — reach out to Craig for details on current compatibility.

Available external assets

We have several available assets for you to use in your own marketing and sales processes. Find them here:

Retail sales presentation
Pio lineup page
Retail landing page
Industrial landing page

On october 13th, a public article will be available from pio.com/launch 
+ Brand assets available here

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to
Craig - Pio's Senior Sales Manager at craig@pio.com
Trine  Pio's Marketing Manager: trine@pio.com

Summary

- Pio Pio Pal makes lights-out automation available out of the box, on top of existing Pio Lineup systems.
- Pio for Industrial and Pio for Retail extend Pio into businesses and segments it hasn't reached before.
- The standalone Pio App puts the full power of Pio's WES within reach of any AutoStore operation, regardless of size.

NOTE: The information in this article is intended for internal partner training purposes only.
For external use, please refer to the approved materials provided to you — including our live, always up-to-date website, official sales collateral, or reach out to our BDM team for additional resources and demo support.