Meet the robots and drones working in warehouses

Physical AI is transforming industrial automation by shifting from rigid, pre-programmed tasks to adaptive, intelligence-driven operations. Raffaello D'Andrea, co-founder of Kiva Systems and Verity, explains how modern vision-language models bypass traditional, brittle computer vision workflows, allowing robots to interpret complex warehouse environments in real-time. While humanoid robots generate industry hype, their widespread adoption faces substantial economic and technical hurdles, including high maintenance costs and limited task-specific utility. Instead, purpose-built autonomous systems, such as Verity’s inventory-tracking drones, provide scalable value by creating digital twins of facilities and optimizing logistics. Ultimately, the future of robotics lies in solving specific, high-impact problems rather than pursuing general-purpose humanoids, as the industry balances the promise of embodied AI with the practical realities of cost-effective, reliable deployment in human-centric environments.