AI Studio lead Logan Kilpatrick from Google has stated that the year 2026 will be a major one for real-world robots. He said so during a period when artificial intelligence is moving fast, and from just being a software thing, it is slowly making its presence felt in physical machines.
Sharing his thoughts on X, formerly Twitter, Kilpatrick says the coming year might prove to be a starting point for the next phase of AI-powered robots that can get to work out there in the real world, not just in research labs.
What did Logan Kilpatrick say?
As he penned in that post, "2026 is going to be a huge year for embodied AI."
He went on, "To use the vernacular, it is going to mean that many people will be seeing robots in the real world a great deal sooner than they would otherwise do so.
Embodied AI is the artificial intelligence that has a body, for example, being set into physical machines such as robots, capable of sensing, mobility, and manipulation of the environment surrounding them.
Google is growing focus on AI and robotics
While this year has been filled with major milestones in AI for Google, especially with the launch of Gemini 3 earlier this month, the company is strongly focusing on robotics.
In September, Google announced Gemini Robotics 1.5 and Gemini Robotics-ER 1.5. These are AI models that can help robots perform complex tasks while learning from real-world data to get the job done. That might help surmount one of the largest drawbacks with current robots: an inability to grasp complicated and unpredictable tasks.
Similarly, placing Google's AI-powered robots in unknown environments allows them to apply various tools like Google Search to better comprehend and respond appropriately to the situation at hand.
Robots are still limited, but progress is clear
Even so, today robots have their limits. The company 1X Technologies, headquartered in the US, released Neo, a humanoid robot priced around USD 20,000, in October. Neo is designed to conduct household chores like cleaning. But for now, it can only handle simple tasks. More complex work is still managed by human employees.
This indicates the technology is improving, yet totally independent robots are still works in progress.
Google is not the only one racing in robots
Google is not the only tech company going all in on AI robots. Elon Musk's Tesla is also working on humanoid robots under the Optimus project. Musk dubbed Optimus "the biggest product of all time" and claimed that it could be upwards of five times more productive than humans.
Musk predicts that AI robots will displace most jobs someday, and humans will enjoy a universal high income. He has also spoken about how, in the coming years, many more companies will enter the AI robot space, leading to competitive pressure.
