Automate 2026: Robots Serving us Coffee!

Automate 2026 was four jam-packed days in Chicago highlighting the latest technology to, you guessed it, automate businesses. The buzzword this year was Physical AI, but much like this Packaging World article points out, the definition for what exactly this term means is still a bit unclear.

The definition offered by Alexandre Boffi from Kawasaki Robotics is helpful: “Imagine a humanoid. That thing’s making decisions on its own and it’s moving. That’s a form of physical AI. Autonomous cars are a form of physical AI…It’s the mechanical manifestation of artificial intelligence.”

Simply put, it’s the system that makes the machines work in the real (physical) world.

We logged 20,000+ steps visiting booths and chatting with teams at the forefront of the next-generation of tools that will transform businesses. From platforms purpose-built to optimize performance for autonomous robots to build at scale to a robot barista serving us a fresh cup of coffee, we saw first-hand how automation has moved beyond experimentation and is scaling to solve operational challenges across many industries.

We took a break from walking the aisles to attend a few sessions. These sessions provided valuable insights into the trends and challenges shaping the industry, and helped us uncover fresh angles for the topics that are resonating to bring back to our clients. One session that was particularly interesting was “Enabling the Data Center Boom: Intelligent Automation.” Moderated by Ani Kelkar, Partner and Global Leader, Robotics & Automation for McKinsey & Company, he dove into arguably one of the hottest topics around the future of automation with panelists from Vertiv, Siemens, Intrinsic and ABB Robotics: How can automation and leveraging AI help meet the unprecedented demand for data centers?

For more of our adventures – and to see a dancing robot set to one of our all-time favorite songs – check out our latest on Instagram.