AI gets physical: an operator’s view from the cleaning front line
Barclays Research has put a clear marker down with its recent “AI gets physical” work: humanoid robotics is moving from concept to commercial reality, helped by a sharp reduction in production costs and a set of structural labour tailwinds.
From the outside, this looks like a tech story. On the inside, in real buildings with real occupants, it is an operating model story.
If you run property or FM portfolios, the question is not “Which robot should we buy?” but “Which automated solution is sympathetic to the given facility, lifts standards, resilience, and reporting without increasing costs?”.
The opportunity is real, but the value is in the last mile
Barclays points to a 30-fold fall in production costs of robots over the past decade, driven by advances in what they call brains, brawn, and batteries.
In plain English: capability is rising and unit economics are...
