July 2026 BLOG POST Why we invested in THEKER by Miguel Bagulho Physical AI's Growing Role in Industrial Automation For decades, industrial robotics has been defined by powerful but rigid machines. Traditional robots excel in repetitive, highly structured environments, but they are expensive to reconfigure and difficult to deploy in the dynamic, messy reality of modern industrial operations. Products change, packaging varies, workflows evolve, and edge cases quickly erode the economics of conventional automation. At the same time, manufacturers, logistics operators and retailers face structural labour shortages, rising labour costs and increasing pressure to improve productivity without adding operational complexity. Automation is no longer simply a cost-saving initiative—it has become a strategic necessity. Artificial intelligence is changing this equation. Advances in computer vision, foundation models, reinforcement learning and edge AI are enabling a new generation of robots capable of perceiving, reasoning and adapting to changing environments instead of executing pre-programmed...
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