AI is moving out of the cloud and into the factory floor, the warehouse and the last-mile delivery route, transitioning from a software utility to the operating system of the physical world. This convergence of advanced robotics and increasingly capable generative AI models is ushering in the era of physical AI, and it represents the defining theme of the current intelligence age.
Physical AI is the genesis of intelligent networks of machines that can think, see, move and act autonomously in real time. This transformation is fuelled by two converging forces: the exponential growth in the capabilities of large generative AI models (which provide superior reasoning and planning) and the decline in the cost and size of associated hardware (which enables sensing and actuation).
As these components become cheaper and more versatile, we are rapidly moving past specialised, programmed robots and toward general-purpose intelligent automation systems, ready to augment human workflows on a scale previously unimaginable.
Read the full article in DPA's March 2026 issue
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