WHAT'S THE ROLE OF KUKA IN THE PHYSICAL AI ERA?

Christoph Schell runs KUKA, the company that built one of the first industrial robots, Famulus, in 1973 and now has close to 600,000 robots working in factories around the world. Now KUKA handle is betting on physical AI. The idea is to combine the deterministic automation KUKA is known for with robots that understand a situation and act on intent, so that even older machines can learn new tricks. I sat down with Christoph to talk about where the training data for physical AI really comes from, why KUKA is growing faster than the market in China, robotics as a service, and why he sees humanoids as one form factor among many mobile robots rather than a category of their own. Christoph told me why this shift feels different from anything he’s seen before: “We’re not disrupting the old industry. We are evolving it.” This is a conversation about physical AI on real factory floors, the business models that come with it, and why the industry’s deployment timelines may be too ambitious. 00:00 Intro and KUKA’s first robot 00:40 What physical AI changes for existing robots 01:45 KUKA’s installed base and factory data 02:40 Automation 2.0: the bin-picking example 03:35 Selling intent-based automation to factories 04:45 Where physical-AI training data comes from 06:15 What data gets you to the 99,99999% reliability 07:10 Robotics as a service 08:25 KUKA’s growth in China 09:40 What does scaling mean for KUKA? 10:45 Why KUKA built a US AI team? 11:35 Is the robotics timeline too ambitious? 12:53 Humanoids versus other mobile robots 14:35 What industrial leaders will need in 2036   / zieglerr   https://x.com/lukas_m_ziegler Business inquiries: ziegler@botnanza.com