With significant ramifications for investors, robots are about to overcome their limitations and proliferate across industry and beyond
According to Mark Minevich, president and founding partner of Going Global Ventures and an AI strategist, robotics "will soon be the largest market that we have ever seen."
According to a recent advertisement I saw on the London Underground, "ChatGPT can't mend a broken pipe," which is one of the major limitations of artificial intelligence (AI) at the moment.
According to Steve Brotman, the founder and managing partner of Alpha Partners, robotics is undergoing its own revolution, even though chatbots might not be able to physically solve problems. According to him, "the use of robotics as the physical embodiment of AI will be a total gamechanger."
According to Junwei Hafner-Cai, a senior analyst on the Polar Capital Sustainable Thematic Equity team, there will be a total of one million installed robots by 2030. It will reach 100 million by 2040 and one billion by 2050. According to Yan Taw Boon, a fund manager at Neuberger Berman, robots are "increasingly able to execute intricate tasks previously reserved for skilled human labor." This makes it possible for factories, logistics centers, and even service sectors to be disrupted.
The biggest game-changer in robotics is artificial intelligence.
Chip AI.
According to Anjali Bastianpillai, a senior client portfolio manager at Pictet Asset Management, artificial intelligence is the single largest factor propelling advancements in robotics. According to Bastianpillai, "physical AI," which refers to its integration with human-like robots and other machines, will be the third pillar of the AI revolution. It will be just as significant as the enormous sums of money being spent on data center construction and the attempts to use AI to power a new generation of intelligent software. According to Darius McDermott, managing director at FundCalibre, advances in "reinforcement learning" have made it possible for robots to "adapt to new environments far more effectively than before" through trial and error.
According to Minevich, these developments in AI are occurring in tandem with hardware advancements that allow robots to perform tasks that were previously thought to be too difficult for them, like walking, picking up a box by themselves, or using their hands to manipulate an object. Robots that were "fixed in place and programmed to do one simple task" are giving way to autonomous devices that "adapt to their surroundings, make decisions on their own and are able to do more than one task" very quickly.
According to Minevich, businesses that wish to "protect margins and get a good return on investment" while managing the pressures brought on by the collapse of global supply chains have become increasingly interested in robot technology as a result of its rapid advancements. Robotics is increasingly viewed as a solution that can help businesses maintain profits and productivity in the face of the need to shift production back to nations with "aging populations and rising wages." According to Richard Clode of The Bankers Investment Trust, this could also be advantageous to society. He claims that if we don't "embrace" robotics, "we won't have enough workers to produce the GDP growth and taxes to pay for an aging population."
According to Valentin Antoine of TDK Ventures, businesses are already "much more willing to adopt robots than they used to be." Although there are still some "holdouts" and skeptics, the fact that early adopters are "seeing tangible returns on investment" is influencing opinions in the boardroom and executive suite. Antoine compares the current demand for robots to that of computers just a few years after the first reasonably priced models became available. He claims that compared to just three years ago, interest and adoption rates are already significantly higher.
Factories have already been taken over by robots.
A humanoid robot is debugged by a technician in a factory.
Naturally, factories have long used robots in one way or another, so it should come as no surprise that industry will be at the forefront of the revolution, especially given the attractive economics. According to research, investing in a humanoid manufacturing robot can pay for itself in just six years at a wage of £20 per hour, according to Hafner-Cai. Even if wages remain unchanged, this payback period will drop to just 1.7 years by the end of the decade and to about three months by 2050 due to the anticipated decline in the cost of such robots.
According to Brotman, many businesses are already covertly testing the use of humanoid industrial robots, and in five years, those without them will be at a competitive disadvantage. Some Chinese businesses already employ "dark factories," so named because they don't require lights because no people work there. According to Sam Hields, a partner at venture capital firm OpenOcean, Chinese factories that aren't using robots themselves may now be providing their employees with a lot of devices and cameras that will supply the training data for tomorrow's droids.
Although Hields emphasizes that robots can increase safety by replacing some of the most hazardous and unclean jobs, the idea of abandoned factories and human workers unintentionally training themselves out of a job may seem a little dystopian. For instance, OpenOcean recently made an investment in Sitegeist, a start-up that created a robot for hydro-demolition, which uses extremely high water pressure to remove concrete. The work can only be done for 20 minutes at a time by humans. Robots are able to map the progress of events and work for much longer periods of time.
On the highway, robots go.
Apollo Go, a company that makes autonomous minicabs, launched a robotaxi.
In retail and logistics, robots are beginning to play a bigger part. According to David Pinn, CEO of the actual AI company Brain Corp., these industries are essential to our contemporary on-demand economy and generate numerous jobs "that can be very difficult for workers, due to the sheer tedium of checking and transporting thousands of items each day." Robots can now perform more tasks that were previously performed by humans because they can "understand the environment in which they are operating." These tasks include scanning shelves for products that are out of stock or have missing price labels. From innovative retailers like Walmart to other supermarkets and large retailers, interest in stockroom and warehouse automation is growing. Larger facilities, frequently involving several buildings, are now using BrainCorps AI-powered robots to increase productivity in factories, distribution hubs, and warehouses.
Naturally, everything is strictly regulated in factories and warehouses, including the temperature. Airport environments are more difficult, according to David Keene, CEO of Aurrigo. Even so, airports have been forced to overcome the skepticism that would be expected in such a conservative, highly regulated industry and embrace the automation of tasks like baggage handling and passenger transfers to and from planes due to the staff shortage brought on by layoffs during the pandemic.
The open road is the most unstructured environment of them all, and autonomous driving has advanced significantly in recent years. According to Keene, it's likely that fully autonomous vehicles won't be commonplace for at least ten years, but it's impressive that many of the major players, like Waymo, are self-assured enough to test their vehicles on London's convoluted and frequently chaotic roads. He claims that "if self-driving cars can make it in London and Europe, they can make it anywhere, just like a robot Frank Sinatra."
According to Blake Heimann, a senior associate at WisdomTree, regulators are the only significant obstacle left after the technical difficulties have been largely resolved. There were very few people who had actually driven a Waymo or a Tesla robotaxi even a year or two ago. Nowadays, though, a lot of tourists visiting Austin or San Francisco will have encountered autonomous vehicles, whether it's a standard taxi or one they ordered via Uber. According to Bastianpillai, China has already discovered that autonomous cars "have a lot fewer accidents and deployment of airbags than conventional cars."
The development of robotic surgery.
An exhibition at the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 about the application of AI in robotic surgery.
According to Bastianpillai, there are other areas where the use of robots could improve safety besides autonomous vehicles. There is already strong evidence that using robots to perform procedures can improve results for surgeons. According to Andrew Williamson, managing partner at Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC), "a wider range of people can do more procedures a day for much longer" if surgeons wear 3D glasses and sit at a console with two Xbox-style controllers.
This is significant because only about one-third of young surgeons are capable of performing the most complex manual procedures, like orthoscopic surgery. Because "it's such a strain on the body to contort yourself into different angles to do all of the procedures," even those who succeed in mastering the advanced techniques usually experience burnout by the time they are fifty. Williamson, on the other hand, learned how to use a surgical robot manufactured by CMR Surgical (which CIC has invested in) to sew simple sutures on a training dummy in just thirty minutes, despite the fact that he has no medical training.
According to Williamson, the majority of current systems are configured so that the robot sits next to the surgeon in the same operating room as the patient. However, switching to a "hub-and-spoke model" should be fairly easy. For instance, a single skilled surgeon in Beijing could use robots to perform surgeries in rural district hospitals. According to Mark Minevich, forecasts that surgical robots will perform every task in two to three years are a bit unrealistic, but routine procedures will probably be performed by robots under supervision in the near future.
In the kitchen are robots.
The R1 robot from Robbyant, an embodied intelligence company under Ant Group, is on display.
According to Miyako Urabe, a portfolio manager at the JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust, robotics is even permeating the service industry, particularly in nations like Japan. These days, you can enter a sushi restaurant, complete your meal, pay, and leave without interacting with anyone. A machine assigns you a seat, you place your order on a tablet, the food is delivered on a conveyor belt, and the finished plates are placed in a hole next to your seat. Robots that "can imitate the craft of the best chefs" are increasingly producing even the food.
According to Matteo Borghi, an associate professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Henley Business School, many Asian hotels now heavily utilize robots. When guests arrive, robots in the lobby greet them, give them directions, and assist with checking in. Behind the scenes, robots are also becoming more and more prevalent, delivering food and amenities to people's rooms and performing cleaning tasks. European hotels have been more cautious "because they are worried about their reputation," and attempts to operate hotels with only robots have failed "because people still want the human touch." However, "and some hotels are now starting to partner with manufacturers" is a clear indication of how things are going.
After manufacturing, logistics, and even medicine, Hafner-Cai believes that domestic work and caregiving will be among the last industries to see the widespread introduction of robots "due to the safety concerns in interacting with elderly people and small children." How long before we can all have our own robot maid or butler? Another problem might be customer acceptance. According to the measurement technology company Hexagon, only 46% of adults worldwide feel comfortable interacting with robots at home, compared to 63% who feel comfortable doing so in industrial settings.
However, according to Omar Moufti, a thematics and sectors product strategist at BlackRock, it's noteworthy that "trust, safety and reliability rather than technical capability" is now the primary barrier. According to Heimann of WisdomTree, there were many "consumer-focused robots" on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and while there were still "plenty of hiccups" with the demonstration models, they are undoubtedly getting better. The first goods are beginning to appear in stores. For £16,000, Unitree plans to sell its humanoid G1 robot, "potentially making it worth the time saved" for high earners who require assistance at home. Heimann thinks that in as little as five to ten years, domestic robots could become widely used. In the box below, we examine the best investments to play the theme.
How to finance the revolution in robotics.
A robot with futuristic financial charts in the background.
An exchange-traded fund (ETF) like the WisdomTree Physical AI, Humanoids and Drones Ucits ETF (LSE: PAIG) is the most straightforward way to participate in the robotics revolution. This tracks the companies that WisdomTree believes are at the forefront of four industries: humanoids; drones and autonomous mobility; next-generation factories and logistics; and emerging applications (like healthcare). The fund is exposed to every aspect of the supply chain, including the companies that manufacture the robots and those that provide essential parts. The ETF's total expense ratio is 0.45 percent, and its two biggest holdings are Rainbow Robotics and Ubtech Robotics.
The iShares Automation & Robotics Ucits ETF (LSE: RBOT) is an additional choice that tracks robot manufacturers in addition to software and semiconductor companies. Terradyne and Intel are the biggest holdings, and the overall expense ratio is 0.4%.
Hyundai Motor Company, a Korean automaker, is another investment in WisdomTree's ETF (Seoul: 005380). According to Blake Heimann, who owns Boston Dynamics, a robotics company, Hyundai has ambitious plans to implement humanoids in their factories over the coming years. In its most cutting-edge factories, Hyundai still has "hundreds of welding robots, automated guided vehicles and even robot dogs doing some spot inspections." Despite an 80% increase in revenue between 2020 and 2025, Hyundai's stock is still only ten times its 2027 earnings. There is a 2.3 percent yield.
Automation systems, industrial robots, and precision engineering are the areas of expertise for Fanuc (Tokyo: 6954). Traditional stationary machines have been its primary focus, but it is now shifting to "co-bots"robots that work alongside human workers. Additionally, it aids businesses in creating "smart" factories. The company's revenue has increased by more than 50% since 2025, and earnings per share have doubled during that time, which explains why the stock is trading at 30 times 2027 earnings. Additionally, the company generates enough cash to pay a 2 percent dividend yield thanks to its high operating margins of about 20 percent and return on capital employed of slightly less than 10 percent.
Aurrigo International (Aim: AURR) is a marginally riskier choice. The company specializes in autonomous vehicles used in airports, particularly for handling cargo and baggage. Additionally, the company has created a software platform that allows airport managers to rethink their operations in light of automation advancements. The company's revenue more than doubled between 2020 and 2024, but it is currently losing money. CEO David Keene highlights that the business is beginning to gain recognition abroad and is already collaborating with Cincinnati Airport in the United States and Changi Airport in Singapore. Canada and the Persian Gulf are also showing interest.
According to Richard Clode, co-manager of The Bankers Investment Trust, businesses that create and market robots won't be the only major beneficiaries of the robot revolution. Because Jabil (NYSE: JBL) assembles robots and automation technologies, he is extremely optimistic about the manufacturing company. In order to expedite the production of its humanoid robot, Apollo, and integrate Apollo into Jabil's own manufacturing processes, Jabil is currently collaborating with the top robotics company in the US, Apptronik. Even though Jabil's profits more than quadrupled between 2020 and 2025, its stock is only worth 18.5 times its 2027 earnings.
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