A century of progress, waiting to be deployed 

In the late 1920s, two enterprising Brits created one of the world's first humanoid robots. Eric was a talking, moving mechanical person – the archetypal metal man and inspiration for everything from C3-PO to Bender in Futurama. 

The UK has excellent form when it comes to robotics. A century after Eric's world tour, London-based Humanoid went viral with HMND 01 Alpha, the country's first humanoid robot for industrial use. 

While progress in bleeding edge automation and physical AI has been consistent in the UK for a hundred years, it's not just cyborgs. Cambridge-based CMR Surgical has developed the Versius surgical robot system, enabling hospitals of all sizes to offer robotic-assisted surgery. Ocado's Smart Platform offers a world class robotic swarm-grid for warehouse fulfillment. Nottingham's MotionTech makes heavy-duty robotics and intelligent conveyor systems to rebuild the backbone of industrial supply chains. 

The UK is a global superpower for research quality in robotics and ranks third for early-stage private investment; the country is a powerhouse at conceiving, designing and coding robots. But when it comes to actually using them, often falls short.  

This ‘robotics paradox’ is well documented. As of last count, UK robot density stands at just 101 robots per 10,000 employees. Miles behind South Korea (932) and Japan (390), but also trailing every single one of its G7 peers and well below the Western European average of 267. 

The problem is especially acute among smaller firms. Three-quarters (74%) of UK manufacturing SMEs operate without a single robot installed. 

Yet the upside is enormous. The government's Smart Strategy 2035 report forecasts that robotics and physical AI could boost UK GVA from £6.4 billion to £150 billion. 

Sadly, that £150 billion figure will not be unlocked by more invention. It will be unlocked by adoption. The UK's opportunity is not to out-spend the US or China on research and development – it is to become one of the best places in the world to test, scale and deploy robotics and physical AI responsibly. That distinction matters enormously, and it is one that UK policymakers have been too slow to make. 

The sectors where the gains are most within reach are well-established: logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, infrastructure and energy. These are not speculative futures – the technology exists and pilots are running.  

The NHS has committed to incorporating robots into 90% of minimally invasive surgeries by 2035 – up from around one in five today – targeting 500,000 robot-assisted operations per year. If delivered, that would reduce patient wait times, free up hospital capacity and position the UK as a global reference point for clinical robotics at scale.  

In logistics, London-based Dexory, which raised $165 million in 2025, deploys autonomous warehouse robots to create real-time digital twins of facilities – giving operators live visibility across their entire stock in a way that was impossible five years ago.  

In manufacturing, over half of UK factories already use AI in some form, and 98% plan to adopt it, with typical payback reported within a year.  

The question is why proven solutions are not scaling – and what it would take to change that. The UK has no issue producing breakthrough research or generating well-funded startups. It is the next step – actually deploying them meaningfully – which is the problem.  

Companies developing genuinely novel systems routinely find themselves without the patient capital or long-term support needed to cross the gap from pilot to production. Meanwhile, manufacturers, hospitals and logistics providers report the same frustration: they can source the robots, but cannot find the skills to deploy, maintain and govern them. Skills shortages in mechatronics, embedded systems, automation engineering and AI operations are becoming a material brake on adoption right as demand is ramping up. 

Unlike Germany, the US, Singapore and South Korea – which have pursued integrated, long-term strategies aligning public R&D investment, workforce development and industrial policy – the UK has lacked the institutional coherence and policy continuity to match them. That is not an irreversible condition, but it does require deliberate correction. 

Closing the gap will depend less on grand ambition than on getting a set of practical building blocks right. The UK needs more shared testbeds, pilot environments and sandboxes where businesses, especially SMEs, can test and validate robotics solutions without bearing the full cost and risk alone. International models, from Singapore's Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre to Germany's Fraunhofer institutes, show what is possible when neutral conveners bring industry, academia and government together. The UK has equivalents, including the Manufacturing Technology Centre, but they are patchy in coverage and inconsistent in funding. 

Safety standards and assurance frameworks need to be credible, internationally portable and proportionate. Well-designed standards can be a competitive advantage rather than a constraint, and the UK's existing work on AI safety gives it a meaningful head start.  

Workforce readiness cannot be treated as a downstream problem either. Apprenticeships, industry-university partnerships and retraining programmes need to run in parallel with deployment, not follow it. 

Perhaps the most underleveraged tool available is public procurement. The NHS surgical robotics commitment is exactly the kind of demand signal that gives technology providers the confidence to invest and scale. More of this – across infrastructure, energy, social care and defence – would shift the economics of deployment in ways that no subsidy scheme can fully replicate. 

Underlying all of this is something less tangible but equally important: business confidence. At a time of wider political and economic uncertainty, practical measures that give firms the conviction to invest, test and scale will matter more than headline ambition.  

That confidence needs to cover not just the technology itself but implementation, governance and change management. Many businesses have been burnt by pilots that did not translate, or by technology that worked in a controlled environment and failed in the real world. Rebuilding that trust requires honest, industry-led case studies, clearer commercial pathways and a support ecosystem that stays the course. 

The UK is not starting from scratch. A record £254 million was raised by UK AI robotics companies in 2025 alone. World-class university research and a growing cohort of deployment-ready businesses give it a stronger foundation than the density figures suggest.  

But momentum is not the same as leadership. South Korea, Germany and Singapore are not standing still. The countries that will define the physical AI economy of the 2030s are those closing the gap between invention and deployment fastest – building the testbeds, training the workforce, anchoring the standards and backing adoption with the consistency of purpose that the market needs to move. 

Eric the robot was built in a garden shed in Fulham. The UK has never lacked for ingenuity. What it needs now is the institutional resolve to match it: to become not just the country that imagines the robots, but one of the best places on earth to put them to work. 

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Technology and Innovation programme activities

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