Constantly growing and nurturing a base of progressive start-ups keeps Massachusetts in the mix as a leader in robotics and AI.
by Peter Fretty for Industry Week
Photo by Adam Lukomski on Unsplash
What robotics and AI/ML based offerings are capable of accomplishing is nothing sort of phenomenal. Unfortunately, matching the potential with actual, real-world applications can be more challenging than it needs to be.
“Hype becomes a big challenge,” says Daniel Theobald, chief innovation officer of Vecna Robotics. “When people have unrealistic expectations, and a robotic solution still provides tremendous value, the overhyped expectations still result in disappointment. This often happens with startups, in part because they don’t necessarily realize how hard the problems are that they’re trying to solve.”
Unfortunately, the scenario damages the industry, “simply because it is so hard, and it’s simultaneously such an area of excitement and hype right now,” he says. “It creates churn. Even though there are great solutions out there that work, that are reliable, that scale, they may have had an experience with a smaller startup trying to make the leap but just didn’t quite make it.”
The key to avoiding hype, explains Theobald, starts with educating the industry as a whole — customers, suppliers and startups. “We’re talking about robots capable of doing more than the exact same thing every time. Robots capable of changing task based on sensor input,” he says.
“It’s a matter of making sure people understand the value proposition has been proven, that there is an ambiguous value, and it’s just going to take time to learn to adopt them. It takes time to learn how to deploy this type of new technology. There’s a learning process, change management process, staff implications and workflow implications. Those organizations that can be convinced to start the process now are going to have a massive advantage over those that don’t.”