Fuelled by rapid advances in artificial intelligence, the robotics industry is approaching a pivotal moment, with annual growth expected to exceed 30% in the coming years.
1 million: That is the number of robots Amazon announced in June 2025 that it had deployed in its distribution centres. According to the Wall Street Journal, the e-commerce giant now has “almost as many robots as employees on its sites”. None of them look like humans, but they all have very specific tasks: Hercules, a small blue robot, can move up to 565 kg of goods; Proteus, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), can navigate freely around the warehouse to move trolleys, avoiding obstacles, without being parked in a designated area. And Vulcan, a handling robot that incorporates several force feedback sensors, has a ‘sense of touch’ that allows it to handle parcels.
Unlike traditional robots, AI robots have new capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence: communicating with humans intuitively using large language models (LLMs), moving autonomously, and learning new tasks by exploiting data from human observation or videos. “Robotics offers a fascinating prospect,” enthuses Hamish Maxwell, investment specialist at Baillie Gifford. “Its development over the next decade could mirror the initial evolution of electric cars: a period of iteration before exponential growth.”
While humanoids are currently attracting all the attention (see Humanoids: dream and reality), AI robots have a different form from humans because they are designed for very specific applications. This has the potential to disrupt many fields, such as medicine, defence and services.
“There are two ways to design a robot,” summarises Humberto Nardiello, fund manager at DPAM. “Either we imagine a machine that resembles us – a humanoid – or something completely different. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages. The infrastructure we live in is designed for humans, which makes it relevant to develop humanoids that could fit into it without changing our environment. But anthropomorphic machines are much more difficult to develop.”
Yet, for most industrial applications, there is no need to climb steps, thus making humanoid features unnecessary. After autonomous cars, which are one of the first examples of functional autonomous machines, AI robots are expected to take over the planet well before humanoids, according to experts. “Industry is the first addressable and monetisable market for AI robots,” says Karen Kharmandarian, CIO & portfolio manager at Mirova. “Factories have a long history of using robots.
Moving to smarter machines that can perform less repetitive tasks and interact with humans is the next step.”
After factories, AI robots will move into other sectors. “As AI software is combined with precision hardware, robots will expand beyond controlled factory environments to become increasingly integrated into everyday life,” predicts Hamish Maxwell.
While estimates and calculation methods vary greatly among analysts, they all agree on strong growth in the coming years. According to Fortune Business Insight, the AI robotics market will grow from $6.19 billion in 2025 to $60.68 billion in 2034, representing annual growth of 37.02% over the period. Grand View Research, meanwhile, forecasts annual growth of 38.5% between 2024 and 2030, which would take the sector from $12.77 billion in revenue in 2023 to $124.77 billion in 2030. “The market for AI-powered robotics is entering a phase of accelerated growth for the next 5 to 10 years,” confirms Matthias Röser, partner at BearingPoint. “The global robotics market as a whole is expected to grow at an annual rate (ed. note: compound annual growth rate) of around 13% to 15%. The AI robotics segment is expected to grow even faster, from around $17 billion in 2024 to over $300 billion in 2034, representing annual growth of nearly 34%.”
Given these promising prospects, is now the time for private investors to jump on the volatile AI robotics bandwagon? “The short answer is absolutely yes!” smiles Nicola Tomatis, president of the Swiss Robotics Association. The long answer is more complex. “Robotics is a cyclical sector that depends on companies’ willingness to invest,” the specialist continues. “In the event of geopolitical and/or macroeconomic crises, uncertainty causes companies to delay their investments, effectively slowing down the growth of robotics. COVID, the war in Ukraine, the supply chain and US customs duties have all put the brakes on investment in recent years. But all this is only temporary. We need more robotics. In a stable world, growth in this sector
is exponential.”
This is because AI robots meet a societal need, namely the shortage of labour, by replacing humans in the most tedious and dangerous tasks. “AI robots can fill a gap,” confirms Karen Kharmandarian. “Due to demographic changes, many countries will face a shortage of employees.” However, it is difficult for private investors to bet on the sector. “AI robotics remains a highly fragmented industry, with many unlisted startups and listed companies that are active in many other areas,” continues Kharmandarian.
Robotisation could enable certain factories to be relocated
Pieter Busscher, portfolio manager at Robeco, recommends following the activity of pickaxe sellers rather than miners: “We need to look at suppliers to the robotics industry, see who manufactures essential components such as chips, sensors, batteries and the mechanical system, which can account for around 50% of production costs.”
This includes tech giants such as Google and Nvidia, of course, but also Qualcomm Technologies, which in January 2026 unveiled a complete architecture for robotics incorporating its latest processor, software and composite artificial intelligence.
A threat to employment?
One thorny question remains: will robots take over all human jobs? “As with all technological revolutions, some jobs will disappear, but others will emerge. Web design, for example, did not exist before the advent of the internet.” But for many professions, rather than their disappearance, it is the distribution of different tasks between machines and humans that will become an issue, says Kharmandarian. “However, this time there is a difference: robots will affect many sectors at the same time. It will be a challenge for our economies to adapt.” Busscher shares this view: “There will be an impact on employment,” confirms Robeco’s portfolio manager. “But at the same time, robotisation could enable certain factories to be relocated. Furthermore, robots will initially replace the most tedious and dangerous jobs. They will also offer more free time.”
Tech giants are taking the issue seriously. Like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, has been advocating for years for the introduction of a universal basic income to compensate for job losses linked to AI, to the point of funding a study on the subject. Silicon Valley bosses envision a future society of leisure where poverty has been eradicated and humans, paid a universal income, can enjoy their free time while robots – developed by a super-elite – handle everything. A dream society or a dystopian world?
