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Rise of the Humanoids

Humanoid robots, built to resemble humans in appearance and movement, are helping to boost productivity and address labour shortages in various industries. They are highly flexible, capable of navigating complex environments, and adept at handling objects of different shapes and weights. Their human-like appearance can also make them more readily accepted in places such as hospitals, care homes, and schools.

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Since the 1980s, advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics have dramatically improved their capabilities, prompting major investments from companies like Tesla, Boston Dynamics and UBTech, amongst others.

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However, challenges such as high investment costs, energy efficiency, operational safety, and sophisticated software still limit their widespread use. Despite these obstacles, humanoid robots are increasingly considered for tasks that minimise risks to humans or fill workforce gaps.

Maturity

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Drivers

Impact

education

Education

  • Across vocational, undergraduate, and graduate levels, robotics education may need to shift from siloed tracks (e.g. technology, psychology, or economy) and adopt a more inherently interdisciplinary approach. This would not just produce technical specialists, but adaptable innovators equipped to drive progress and implementation across fields for real-world applications.
  • Humanoid robots themselves may eventually contribute to education, offering new forms of support for both teaching and learning.
Research

Research

  • Humanoid robotics interconnects a wide range of research domains, and as humanoids enter workplaces, research must move beyond technologies and cost savings to broader use cases: sustaining productivity, enabling collaboration, and rethinking processes and (organisational) systems.
  • Research on humanoids should address not just what humanoids can do, but how they can be accepted, usable, and valuable. Humanoids are a testbed for how we connect technology, people, and society, and how we can shape the future of work, learning, and innovation.
Operations

Operations

  • Institutions can support human-centred development and carefully consider the adoption of humanoid robots through collaborations with tech developers, use case organisations, and other stakeholders.
  • Institutions might start to consider how they participate in the evolution of and the future of humanoid robots in the workplace, education and society as a whole.