Robots Consumer Insights

Trend - Robotics companies are launching advanced robots capable of automating tasks in the workplace and the home. These robots have dexterous limbs, precision accuracy, and reliable problem-solving skills. Businesses are using these to automate simple and menial to complex jobs in the workplace.

Insight - Some of the most undesirable tasks in the workplace and in the home are menial, repetitive duties. The agents responsible for these tasks often burnout of their jobs quickly, leading to high turnover rates in the workplace, or tasks left unfinished in the home. Given the simplicity of many of these tasks, businesses desire automated solutions that alleviate strain from workers to focus energy on more complex tasks. Robotics brands are launching dexterous, capable robots in response.

Trend - Brands are launching home air purifiers with embedded artificial intelligence features. These air purifiers monitor the surrounding air and communicate its quality to people around it with AI. These purifiers automatically activate when required, rather than operating 24/7, saving on energy.

Insight - For western consumers, many aspects of the home have been transformed with smart features. From the front door to the fridge, and even the outlets, consumers desire convenience, time-saving, and energy-saving features. These consumers are willing to pay an upfront premium to save downstream, particularly for products that improve their quality of life at home, leading to brands responding to this by creating premium, efficient products across multiple home sectors, such as cleaning.

Trend - Brands in the 3D-printing space are launching printers and materials that can create complex, durable glass structures. This offers more value to consumers in the space, as many regular printers can now create designer glass structures for jewelry or otherwise without specialty equipment.

Insight - Consumers in the 3D-printing space are drawn to tools and services that enable creativity and streamline the creation process. This includes printers that create higher-quality prints faster, as well as software that enables more precise designing of printed works. This desire extends beyond software and hardware to material works as well, as consumer pressures previously moved the industry toward wood filament printing for sustainability, showing a demand for more printable materials.

Trend - Architectural and automotive brands are leveraging solid-state battery technology for its improved capacities, reduced weights, and improved safety rates over traditional liquid electrolyte batteries. This technology improves convenience for consumers while reducing climate impacts.

Insight - One of the largest barriers to consumers venturing into electric transportation stems from safety and capacity concerns. Regular batteries are heavy and often have lower range than gas-powered vehicles, leading to the desire for more efficient, lighter-weight batteries that charge more quickly. On the architectural side, customers desire safe, reliable electric power supplies that deliver energy without the potential to explode or preemptively run out of fuel.

Trend - The 3D printing industry is one that continually pushes toward efficiency and accuracy. Since HP introduced Multi Jet Fusion technology to the market in 2021, many companies have adopted this technology in order to provide printing services for complex, functional parts with fine details.

Insight - At-home 3D printers cover most simply small-to-medium-sized printing jobs. However, many at-home printers fail to create functional prototypes of small parts and tools, as these parts often require precise, intricate details. Additionally, customers cannot afford to have these printed parts be structurally unsound. HP's Multi Jet Fusion technology addresses these areas by allowing companies to print small, highly complex parts that are functional and reliable.

Trend - Advanced artificial intelligence has opened the door to advanced farming technology that significantly reduces the required amount of worker input. The AI allows for automated tools such as smart tractors and smart coops to optimize daily workflow by automating complex tasks.

Insight - Farmers face a continued desire for increased efficiency not just of space but of workers' time. Automated technologies allow farmers to focus on larger-scale management while leaving menial physical labor jobs to programmed machines. Farmers are continually tasked with increasing outputted food quantities without compromising on quality or safety, leading directly to the desire for constant automated assistance that goes beyond simple, linear tasks such as pesticide spreading.

Trend - Retail bots are no longer only designed to offer assistance in-store--they're now also dealing with some of the social interactions associated with brick and mortar shopping. These bots are designed to foster good will and do everything from greeting customers to bringing them snacks.

Insight - With smart retail solutions becoming increasingly common, some consumers miss the social interactions that come with shopping in brick and mortar stores. These consumers are drawn to businesses that prioritize their experience as a customer despite the convenience-based innovations they're investing in.

Trend - Companies are creating robots that provide solutions to enforce social distancing guidelines, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. The various robots can provide reminders, stand-in for interactions, or even complete jobs typically done by people.

Insight - Due in part to the outbreak of COVID-19, consumers are taking more of an active interest in workplace measures that are designed to protect the health and safety of employees. This same group of consumers may value brands that take workplace safety responsibilities seriously.

Trend - Emerging from the prototyping stages for safety and efficacy, tech companies are beginning to implement their robotic innovations more broadly in the setting of hospitals. These robots have the capacity to support doctors during a procedure or by checking in on patients, replicating duties that are typically carried out by nurses.

Insight - Human activity can benefit from technological assistance as the intervention allows users to focus on the more important aspects of a job. Consumers become interested in such innovations, especially when it comes to the healthcare industry where precision and efficiency are prioritized for the peace of mind of all parties involved. As a result, the use of technology satisfies consumer needs which pertain to accuracy, safety, and even reassurance.

Trend - Designers and artists are looking into the extent to which modern machines and algorithms can comfort and provide solace to human beings in the tech age. Whether it is through mimicking a bodily quality or evoking a sensation, these products are an exploration or considered to alleviate anxiety.

Insight - The tech age has made consumers vastly curious about their developing relationship with machinery. Many become alienated as social media fades the immediate need for face-to-face contact, while immersive technology, broadcasting media and new forms of entertainment can have a tendency to overstimulate. Many are interested in exploring the possibilities of finding comfort in technology, which is a desire driven vastly by a curiosity about the discovery of new possibilities.