Insights from industry experts.
"From ancient water clocks marking the hours to mobile robots directing complex warehouse logistics, autonomy has always been a testament to humanity’s innate desire for progress. Its core promise endures. Increased productivity. Greater efficiency. Enhanced safety. Economic growth. All made possible by smart systems that streamline complex processes.
In 2025, we’ve reached a watershed moment. According to Forrester’s Automation Survey, 2024, 82% of organisations have increased their investment in automation due to the rise of generative AI . Meanwhile, humanoid robots – absent from 2024’s predictions – have now been named a top emerging technology.
Breakthroughs in AI, high-fidelity simulation, and multimodal sensing are pushing robots beyond scripted automation into the realm of embodied intelligence. Machines can increasingly perceive, learn, and independently make decisions in a variety of ways – and spaces – that were once uniquely human.
This begs the age-old question: where does that leave us?
As the technology curve dramatically steepens, evoking both sci-fi promise and dystopian unease, business leaders face a strategic imperative: capture the power of these innovations while safeguarding the human judgment, creativity, and purpose that define enduring organisations. Autonomy has too often been treated as a zero-sum substitute for people. Instead, we must champion augmentation; designing a workforce where human ingenuity and robotic precision amplify one another to create value neither could achieve alone. A robot renaissance is here. And with it, an extraordinary opportunity to reimagine how we produce and grow. This is our chance to build a truly intelligent future for robotics – a future where humans set the terms."
