Billions of robots within a decade? A similar growth curve to smartphones?
We currently have about 30 million robots on the planet, not counting Roombas and similar small bots. RobotLab CEO Elad Inbar says that will hit BILLIONS with a B within 10 years.
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We discuss the exponential increase in commercial robots globally and predict billions of robots integrating into daily activities, from service industries to personal assistance, over the next decade. We chat about the evolution of robotics from novelty items to essential aspects of business operations, highlighting the role of robots in automating mundane tasks and their future potential in enhancing customer service and living standards.
Inbar also emphasizes the importance of service infrastructure to support the widespread adoption of robotics technology, drawing parallels with past technological advancements like mobile phones and cars. And we dive into specific applications of robots in restaurants, cleaning services, and healthcare, particularly for dementia patients, and the franchise model RobotLab is adopting to expand its reach and capacity to deliver robotics solutions.
Billions of robots: zoom to the section you’re most interested in
Zoom to the topics you’re most interested in …
- 00:00 The Dawn of the Robot Decade: Envisioning a Future with Billions of Robots
- 01:02 The Big Picture: Robots Transforming Business and Society
- 07:10 The Current State of Robotics: From Hospitality to Manufacturing
- 09:50 The Future of Work: Robots Filling the Gaps in the Workforce
- 12:40 Enhancing Customer Service: How Robots are Changing the Game
- 13:31 The Restaurant Revolution: Robots Taking Over Service Roles
- 16:35 Exploring the Role of Robots in Restaurants
- 16:47 Adapting Robots to Different Restaurant Environments
- 18:18 Growth Areas Beyond Restaurants: Cleaning and Retail
- 22:47 The Future of Customer-Facing Robots
- 24:00 Robots in Assisted Living: A Compassionate Solution
- 27:09 Unlocking the Potential of Robotics in Business
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And … a complete transcript of my chat with RobotLab CEO Elad Inbar
RobotLab
Elad Inbar: We are going to see billions with the B of robots out there.
So think about this way, there are 8 billion people on this planet, right? And, you know, 30 million robots, as big as it is, it’s not even half percent of half percent. Hmm, the, the population. Mm-Hmm. So we are, uh, you know, in, in this exponential growth right now
John Koetsier: Our robots soon to be part of our everyday life in hotels, restaurants, airports, everywhere. Hello and welcome to Tech First. My name is John. Er. First time I saw a robot in a hotel. It was in Japan. It was more than a decade ago. It might’ve been 15 years ago. It was mostly a toy. Uh, but it was cool.
Question is, is that changing and where are robots close to actually delivering business value? Jack, we have a lot in bar. He’s a CEO of Robot Lab. They’ve deployed tens of thousands of robots and businesses over the last 15 years. Welcome a lot. How are you?
Elad Inbar: Yeah. Thank you, John. Thanks for having us.
John Koetsier: Hey, super pumped to have this conversation.
Let’s start with a super big picture. We’re gonna get into the details, where you deliver robots, what they do, how much they cost, payback periods, all that stuff. But let’s start with the really, really big picture. It’s really early days in terms of robotics. There’s cool stuff, there’s amazing stuff. What kind of future do you envision when you look forward, maybe it’s 10 years, maybe it’s 20, I’m not sure, but what kind of future do you envision robots and humans working together?
Elad Inbar: Yeah, that, that’s a great question. And um, I always love to start from, you know, the big picture because, uh, especially in technology, it’s very hard to, uh, you know, comprehend the pace. Changes. And, uh, you know, we, we all, you know, remember the, you know, the first, uh, you know, mobile phone, the Motorola with the shoulder strap, right?
Uh, this was launched somewhere in the, I dunno if we all remember that. Okay. It all okay, but we know of it. Okay? Yes. But, uh, but anyways, it, it was launched roughly in the late, uh, eighties, um, and a decade later, by the late nineties, everyone already had a mobile phone. Uh, the same happened with a smartphone right from the time, you know, the, uh, you know, Android, the iPhone was launched.
Uh, you know, until everyone has, uh, a smartphone, it’s roughly a decade. Mm-Hmm. Um, same with internet penetration, the same with laptops and so on and so on. And I believe today we are roughly in, uh, the second or third year of the robot decade. Uh, so although we, you know, we kind of like not really see that everywhere.
Uh, I can tell you based on the, uh, international, uh, robotics association, there are around 30 million, uh, commercial robots out there. I’m not talking about the Roombas and, you know, the residential robots. I’m talking about commercial cleaning, delivery, you know, factory robots and these kind of things, and 30 million robots.
It’s a pretty. You know, large number by itself. Mm-Hmm. But if you consider, again, the, the, you know, the, the decade that is, you know, upon us, that we are going from, uh, basically zero, you know, products out there to almost a hundred percent penetration. Okay? We are going to see billions with the B of robots out there.
So think about this way, there are 8 billion people on this planet, right? And, you know, 30 million robots, as big as it is, it’s not even half percent of half percent. Hmm, the, the population. Mm-Hmm. So we are, uh, you know, in, in this exponential growth right now, and that’s actually, uh, you know, something that we see in our numbers.
That’s, you know, why, uh, we decided to grow in a certain way. Um, you know, using a franchise model, we can talk about that later, uh, because we get demand from so many different places that need to have robots today. Right now, and we just can’t be everywhere all the time. Mm-Hmm. Uh, so when, when we look at the, you know, the horizon, what’s coming?
Um, I can just refer to one, you know, uh, you know, person, Elon Musk. Uh, a couple of weeks ago we had, um. Uh, earnings, uh, you know, call with, uh, you know, the Tesla shareholders and he said that they’re going to deploy 1 billion with a B 1 billion of their Optimus, uh, robot, the, the human rich robot, uh, by the end of 2030.
So this is something that, you know. Just one company with one single robot is going to do 1 billion products. Okay,
John Koetsier: well I’ll believe that when I see that Elon Musk also told me that I could buy a Tesla and it would be making money, self-driving as a taxi about 2015 or something like that. So I’ll believe that when I see that.
But I have talked to, I, I agree. I agree. Investors behind figure ai, which is, you know, a humanoid robot company that will compete with Optimus, and I’ve talked to the executives. Apron and many others. Yeah. Figure as well. And many of them are saying, Hey, you know what, uh, we expect the numbers of humanoid robots to be roughly equivalent to or surpass the human population at some point.
Exactly. So that that point in general is not tremendously controversial in the robotics community, at least.
Elad Inbar: Exactly, and, and it’s important, you know, for I think people that are not from the industry to understand, you know, what’s coming. Because again, we, we can’t even comprehend that within, you know, a decade and let’s say Elon Musk is, you know, wrong by five years.
Okay? We’re talking about, you know, again, it’s not like, you know, 50 years from now, a hundred years from now, it’s in our lifetime. We are going to have, you know, as you said, more people, more robots and people, right? And you know how our lives are going to change, you know, as a result of that, how, you know, the service industry, the, you know, entertainment industry, the, you know, manufacturing and so on, are going to change.
And this is something that, again, we have to take a step back and look at, you know, this overarching, you know, uh, uh, trend that is happening in the industry.
John Koetsier: It raises so many questions and people let, let’s say normal people, people who aren’t in technology right, are already dealing with so much future shock, right?
You know, they’re already dealing with so much change and, and change of this scale and change that impacts potentially their wages, how they make their livelihood, uh, all that sort of thing. Is going to be a tsunami. Absolute tsunami. Okay. We’re gonna get into where you’re delivering them now, what verticals, what you see growing, all that stuff.
But kind of let, maybe let’s, let’s continue at the high level. ’cause it’s been interesting. Yeah. I wanna talk about as we. Enter that reality of robots entering the workforce and maybe their, uh, hospitality, maybe their delivery, you know, and maybe eventually they’re humanoid and, and they’re actually doing some interesting things in a factory or in a warehouse or something like that.
How do you see robots and humans working together? I mean, there’s lots of options, right? Um, one human, one robot take, take the job. One human, one robot help with the job. One, one. Make something, do something so that you could do the job with significantly greater quality. Right? Yeah. And there’s many more scenarios as well.
What, how do you see
Elad Inbar: it? So let’s start with where we are today. Um, today, uh, you know, we at Robert Club and, you know, other, uh, you know, companies, manufacturers, and everything, uh, we are helping, uh, mainly business owners, uh, to automate tasks that people don’t want to do anymore. That’s where we are today, right?
I mean, uh, you know, people don’t want to, uh, clean floors, don’t want to, you know, vacuum corridors for eight hours a day. People don’t want to, um, you know, run, uh, uh, you know, dirty dishes. Back to the dish washing station. Uh, these are tasks that still need to be done. Uh, you know, we are hearing even from, uh, school administrators, the janitors are retiring.
And, you know, there is no new generation that wants to come and, you know, clean the, uh, school, you know, facilities every day, but they still need to clean the floors every single day. So this is where, you know, where we are today. And you know, my observation is that, you know, it happened, you know, for many years, even before Covid, but Covid kind of like accelerated that, um, in which.
If you think about it, uh, COVID happened almost four years ago, right? I mean, I believe in, in a week or two from now, uh, is is four years, uh, you know, celebration, uh, since we went Mm-Hmm. We were all sent home to the flatten the curve, right? Um, right. It was mid-March roughly. Um, and what happened is, if you think about it, people that were.
At these entry level, uh, you know, jobs four years ago they moved on, right? They are four or five years into their careers. They want, you know, higher paying jobs. They have more, more responsibility. They want to build the family and, you know, start, uh, you know, buying their home and, and so on. They, they don’t want to do the entry level jobs anymore.
And the new generation that’s supposed to, you know, just step into these entry level jobs. They were in eighth grade when. So, Mm-Hmm. They never experienced, you know, childhood, the, the, the way that we experienced that, right? They never worked at a, you know, burger King, flipping burgers or, you know, doing all these, uh, summer jobs.
Everything that they know is, is around, you know, being online, being at home. So DoorDash and Uber Eats and trading crypto on, uh, on Robinhood. This, this was their, you know, their, their entire, you know, growing right, growing up right As, as high schoolers. So, you know, they, they finish, you know, high school.
They, you know, I’m ready to go to the workforce. Okay. I’m going to the, my first job. And, uh, you know, the business owner is just like, oh, that’s your first job. Awesome. 12 to an hour, take this broomstick and start, you know, working on there. Mm-Hmm. And they’re like, no, I’m not gonna do that. Right. I never did that.
Why would I need to do that? So this is the gap that that happened. These people moved on. These people are not willing to step in. Okay? Mm-Hmm. So robots today need to help business owners operate. Where people don’t want to do these jobs anymore. And that’s where we are today. We have, uh, you know, delivery robots that are helping in restaurants, in hotels, uh, you know, room service, robots and so on.
Uh, we have, um, a cleaning robots that are designed to clean, uh. Uh, you know, large spaces. Think about, uh, you know, ballroom in a, in a hotel, all the corridors across, you know, multiple floors, uh, you know, uh, uh, warehouses and car dealerships and supermarkets and so on. Um, and we have customer service robots because that’s also one of the largest challenges right now is people don’t want to talk to people.
They don’t want to do customer service because everyone has attitude from both sides, customers and their representatives. Right? And, you know, robots can actually offer the way of, um, you know, providing customer service, providing information in a consistent way. Uh, so these are, you know, the, the robots that we see today.
We have also cooking robots and these kind of things because the same problem happened in the back of the house as well. Line cooks are in great shortage right now.
John Koetsier: Um, I mean, I had a conversation. I had a conversation. It’s gotta be half a year ago now, actually. It was December 8th, 2020. I just looked it up on my own website here with Measle Robotics, the founder, buck Jordan, they make flippy the, uh, the the burger flipping robot.
Yep. And, and he was saying that he was talking to, uh, restaurant owners and they had nobody who would come in. And flip the burgers, uh, flip the fries, all that stuff. White Castle. Mm-Hmm. Big chain in the US for burgers and stuff. Did a big pilot project around this. I didn’t hear how it went or they kept it or anything, but they had similar issues bringing in low cost labor to
Elad Inbar: make fast food.
Yes, exactly. So, so this is where, you know, robots are today, right? Uh, we have a need, uh, you know, businesses still need to operate. Um, and, you know, people are not willing to do that. So robots step in, uh, to help with the, uh, with the few that do show up to work. So that, that’s kind of like where No, it is. I mean, think about yourself.
Yeah. How many times you sat in a restaurant, okay? And you ask for the check. Right. And you raise your hands like, Hey, can I get the check? And the server was just like, just a second. I’m just running over there. I’ll be back in a second. And you know, it’s been 5, 7, 10 minutes and you know, she keeps running back and forth and you know, she didn’t forget you, but she’s very, very busy.
And why is that? Because the few that do show up to work are overworked. They cannot provide the level of service that we as customers expect them. And for every minute that’s, you know, pass on, you know, when we wait for the check, their tip amount is, you know, shrinking, right? Because why are we giving tips for the level of service, right?
And if we don’t get service, you know, this gets smaller and smaller. And what we are seeing in every restaurant that we deployed, uh, uh, service Robot, a delivery robot, the servers can stay in the dining room. And these robots save them all the running back and forth to the kitchen. So with the surface staying in the dining room, their tips actually increase.
Because, you know, if I run out of water, they refill it immediately. If I drop my fork, they bring me a new one immediately. If I need the check, they’ll be there in two minutes. Right? And, and this kind of service is what we are looking for. You know, we have, you know, we live in a first world, right? We have enough food at home.
We go to the restaurant for the service. Right. Mm-Hmm. Not for, you know, uh, uh, real need, right. For food. So, you know, if we get the service, we will recommend the place. We’ll, you know, come back. So it’s, it’s a positive cycle that just contribute to the business.
John Koetsier: So that’s a good segue then to talk about where your delivering robots the most right now.
Uh, what, what are the biggest sectors? Uh, and then we’ll talk about the growth rates as well. Yeah.
Elad Inbar: So restaurants by far right now. All over the place. Uh, it doesn’t matter if it’s a, you know, full serve restaurant, full service restaurant or quick serve or whatnot. Any, uh, restaurant owner, uh, is struggling with the same thing.
Uh, finding people and making people show up, because even if you have people, they just don’t show up.
John Koetsier: Right. So the robot that you’re selling into a restaurant is what you mentioned, it’s delivery, right? It’s bringing stuff out. What’s that look like? What’s the form factor? I’m guessing it’s on wheels. I’m guessing the top is a tray.
I’m guessing it has some kind of screen and maybe some kind of talking capability. Yeah.
Elad Inbar: So Lab is a unique company in which, uh, we don’t manufacture the robots. Uh, we used to manufacture robots, uh, in the past, but we stopped doing that today. We are partnering with the largest, uh, manufacturers from all around the world.
So, for example, we are the exclusive partner for lg, uh, robots, uh, you know, across the, uh, north and Latin America. So we, uh, bring their robots to the market, but, uh, you know, we are, you know, partners with other manufacturers as well. Typically these robots will have shells, you know, couple of wheels, sensors that they can navigate around obstacles, around people, um, and these kind of things.
But not every robot is the same. There are different, uh, you know, use cases which will require different types of robots. I’ll give you a couple of examples. So let’s say you are, uh, you know, a small bistro kind of restaurant, right? And you know. Everything is packed. You know, people are sitting, you know, close to each other.
You’ll need a smaller robot with a smaller footprint that can navigate, you know, between these, uh, you know, different chairs and and so on. Uh, compared to, uh, let’s say iHope, you know, type of restaurant where you have, uh, you know, large parties, typically it’s, you know, parents and grandparents and kids and everything, and large plates.
So a small robot that can, you know, uh, navigate between chairs is not gonna fit enough tables, sorry, enough, uh, plates, uh, to bring to the table, uh, in, in a iHope type restaurant. So not every robot can do the same thing. Another example, if you are, um, a Vietnamese, uh, fall restaurant. So you serve giant balls of boiling, you know, liquid, right?
You need superb suspension. We actually have, uh, you know, one of the manufacturers have a drive pattern that, you know, when the robot drives it actually, it has great suspension, but it also, as it slows down, it actually leans backward. It. Making sure that liquid wants spilled, you know, out of the bowls because they are focused on this type of, um, of, on this type of, of food.
So not every robot is, uh, you know, the best fit for every restaurant. And that’s what we do. Our team actually partner with the customers and we ask them a lot of questions about, you know, their environment, their food, their kitchen, their floor, their, you know, uh, width between the tables, the between the tables and so on.
And based on all of that, we recommend the right product that will be successful in their environment. So these are, you know, generally speaking, delivery. How does that
John Koetsier: work? Fatigue. How does that work at the table? Um, does the robot come up and say, Hey, here’s your food and you have to grab it off the robot.
Does a server come by and put, put, put it on the plate? How does that work?
Elad Inbar: So that, that’s, that’s a great question because again, not every, uh, restaurant is the same, right? If I go to a Chick-fil-A for example. Um, you know, it’s, it’s a fast restaurant like McDonald’s. For those who don’t know, uh, you know, it’s okay if the robot comes next to me and I take the tray and I put it on the table.
Actually, I don’t expect any more service than that. And it’s really cool that I was served by a robot, right? Uh, but if I go to a high end, you know, uh, you know, steakhouse or something, you know, uh, you know, fine dining restaurant, I don’t want to take the plate by myself. Because again, we are paying for the service.
I want the server to present the food to me and say, Hey, Mr. John, here’s your steak. Medium rare, the way, the way that you ask for it. Would you like some extra salt and pepper? Right? So in that case, the robot needs to be in a holding position, okay? Just like where they put the foldable tables with the giant, you know, trays that they bring.
The robot is in a holding position. The server takes the food from there and present to the guests. Because, you know, in that type of environment, it’s not acceptable that the guests will, you know, take the food. Yeah. So we are working with the restaurant owners. We have different, uh, standard operating procedures for different types of restaurants, uh, just to match the, you know, the level of service that, you know, they want to provide to their, um, uh, to their guests, uh, with the right technology, but in any, in either way.
Okay. The server stay with the guests, and that’s the purpose. Because the servers need to serve the guests. Right. Not to run back and forth. Yeah. This can be automated. Yeah.
John Koetsier: That makes ton of sense. So restaurants is a big growth area. What other verticals are significant growth
Elad Inbar: areas right now? Um, the other, uh, vertical that we see a lot of demand is in cleaning.
I. Um, the, the, the entire clinic industry, it can be hotels, again, restaurants, assisted living facilities, very, very, uh, you know, in high demand right now. Uh, they all, you know, suffer from labor shortages. Uh, and they can’t clean, you know, enough, uh, of, you know, their facility because they don’t have people, they don’t have the manpower to do that.
Um, so, you know, we have, for example, some of our customers assisted living facilities with 200 rooms. They have one cleaning lady. One. Wow. That’s possible. Okay. It, it, it’s hard. It’s hard on her because she can’t do everything. Okay. She can’t Mm-Hmm. Touch the entire facility every day. Right. And, and mm-Hmm.
You know, it affects, it affects their, you know, cleaning lab, you know, score and all of that. Uh, so, you know, when we introduce robots, uh, today, by the way, cleaning robots are mainly for, uh, public spaces. We don’t have yet robots that can clean rooms or, you know, bathrooms and these kind of things. Uh, but, you know, even helping with public spaces, all the corridor, the ballrooms, the, you know, dining area, reception area, and all of that.
We’re talking about, you know, hours per day. Uh, we’re talking about, you know, tens and, you know, hundreds of thousands of square feet at the end of the day. Um, yeah, so, so this is a great help for
John Koetsier: them. I assume retail is another interesting area as well. I think it was Walmart that recently did a pilot project with a stock sensing robot.
Yeah. Going down the aisles, what’s low, what needs to be replaced, all that sort of thing.
Elad Inbar: Yeah. So there were few attempts, uh, in the past few years by, by different companies to do the stock keeping, uh, robots, um. As far as I’m aware, most of them are still in the pilot phase or, you know, were discontinued.
Mm-Hmm. Uh, the reason is that, uh, the way that it works, uh, the, the role basically has a, like a long, uh, you know, post with cameras and, you know, uh, just take pictures of all the items on the shelves. And in many cases, uh, you know, the, the associates at the store bring, let’s say, you know, there is only one box of cereal, you know, left, right?
So the associates bring that to the front of the, of the shelf. Right. Um, and it’s full, no problem. Exactly. So, you know, the robot can see behind that. Uh, so that’s a problem that, uh, was still not solved. Um, so, you know, most of these are still in, uh, in early phase. Uh, I I, I’m not familiar with any successful deployment of these type of, uh, robots.
Um, but when it comes to cleaning, you know, Walmart is an example or you know, any supermarket, right? I mean, cleaning their floors, uh. Either on a consistent basis or, you know, it just goes up and down, uh, to clean. Or, you know, milk was peeled in, you know, aisle four, right? So someone needs to get there.
Mm-Hmm. Send the robot, let the robot clean that, um, you know, instead of, uh, you know, taking a cashier or someone else, uh, that is doing something more important. Um, so this, this kind of thing, automating, like
John Koetsier: actually helping a customer Exactly. Like actually helping a customer. I mean, trying to get help where in one of these stores is really, really challenging.
Yeah. Most of these. Most of these jobs that you’re talking about are jobs that don’t require. A significant amount of engagement with humans. They require safety protocols. They need to get around humans. They need to be careful where humans are, but they don’t involve a lot of interaction with humans.
Where do you see that coming in? Is it coming in already? Where do and if, if so, where? And do you see technologies like LLMs, GPT four, that sort of thing being important in that?
Elad Inbar: Yeah. So, uh, on the. These types of robots that we discover, that we discussed so far, uh, you know, they have sensors and everything.
They’re safe around humans. Uh, you know, every time they, they have laser sensors and ultrasonic sensors and cameras and so on. So every time they detect motion or something, first, you know, rule is stop. Let you know the humans, you know, pass. And then, uh, you can keep going. If you know the person stays there or the obstacle stays there, then you know, replan uh, a path around that and, and try to find another way around that.
So this is, uh, what, um, uh, you know, these robots are doing today. And again, these are what, as you said, I mean, they’re not. Talking to people, they’re not engaging, they’re not entertaining. Yeah. Some of the delivery robots have a, you know, birthday song, so, you know, if they deliver the cake they’ll, you know, sing Happy birthday.
But that’s fine. That’s not an interactive kind of, uh, uh, you know, uh, you know, a way to, to talk to customers and all of that. We have another, uh, section of robots that are designed. To be customer facing, to designed, to answer questions, to, uh, talk about, you know, product services, about the location. Um, so I’m sure you’re familiar with Pepper, uh, humanoid robots from SoftBank Robotics.
So this robot is designed to be, you know, a customer facing to answer questions. It can actually speak and understand 26 different languages. Uh, so think about it as a concierge at the hotel. Okay. Answering all these repetitive questions like when the airport chat leaves, uh, what are the hours of the gym?
Can you recommend restaurants around here? Can you recommend attractions for the kids? Right? So all these repetitive questions can be answered, you know, in a, in a, you know, a, a coherent way, constantly. It doesn’t matter if it’s 6:00 AM in the morning or, you know, close to midnight. Uh, you don’t have, uh, you know, um.
Either missing employees that don’t show up in the morning, or you know, employees that talk back and, you know, bring, you know, attitude in a way, or, uh, I mean, you’re laughing, but that’s, you know, reality or people that just sit on their social, you know, media on their phone, on the back office for two hours and they actually don’t even, you know, occupy their, their station.
So these are, you know, real stories that I’m hearing from, uh, you know, from business owners. Uh, we even have these robots in, uh, assisted living facilities where. Uh, they’re helping, especially with people with, uh, dementia, um, that, um, mm-hmm. You know, is, is a big issue right now because we don’t have assisted living facilities don’t have enough therapists to work with, uh, you know, the, the residents with dementia.
Yeah. And, you know, these people wake up in the morning. They don’t know where, why they’re there, why they’re not home, where is their spouse? Where are the kids? You know why I’m being held here? And you know, they’re not stupid, they just forgot, right? They just don’t remember what’s going on. So, you know, we need to go to them and just, Hey, Mrs.
Jones, you are here because you have a memory, uh, issue. We are here to help you. Your spouse will come, uh, you know, later this afternoon, your kids will be here, and so on. Just try to ease them back, you know, into the daily life. We don’t have enough therapies to do that. And robots are great, you know, assistance because, you know, this type of robot pepper, for example, um, you know, can come over, can show on the tablet, it has tablet on the chest, uh, it can show pictures of their wedding day.
We work with the families, we work with the, uh, you know, facilities, uh, you know, picture of their first child that was born and so on. Um, and basically lower the level of stress because. You know, think about yourself. You wake up in the morning, I’m being held here, the door is locked. Why am I here? I want to go home.
I want to go to my family. You know, you’ll not hold me here. And you know, because we cannot talk to them. Okay? They get frustrated, they get upset and, you know, sometimes violent. So they lock them in the room. We just accelerate this time and this is not the way to treat, you know, the elderly and, and robots are not judgemental.
No. The robot will do that 50 times a day. Right. Without any problem. It’s not like, Hey, I told you five minutes ago, can’t you remember it? It’s not going to have this attitude or issue, uh, because it’s a robot. And, and that’s kind of like where customer facing robots can, you know, help, uh, you know, different types of people, right.
From hotels all the way to assisted living facility.
John Koetsier: I saw a lot of that kind of robot at CES in January of this year actually. And at the time I was. Super skeptical and I was like, okay, you’re gonna put this like one that I saw sort of sits on a desk or a table or a counter or something like that. Has a screen, not really a face, but sort of glowy eyes and sort of a mouth smile.
And it’s like, come on. But I can totally see it. My mother has been diagnosed with dementia. And I can totally see it as something that would be incredibly helpful. And people like this come to need 24 7 care. ’cause they get up in the middle of the night. Yep. And they go somewhere and they don’t know where they are and they get lost and they get upset and they get scared.
And we simply don’t. Even if, even if you’re paying $10,000 a month for a super amazing care facility, uh, there just aren’t enough people to be with them all the time. And you know what? Our, as their kids, we’re working, we have jobs, we have our own kids, we have our, we can’t be there 24 7 either. So I think there is huge opportunity there.
Yeah. Okay. Um, we’ve talked about a lot of the stuff that, that I wanted to get into. Um, I, I wanted to maybe ask one question before we start to come to a close. Where do you see the biggest opportunity over the next few years? We’ve talked about a couple different verticals. You talked about.
Follows the path of the smartphone, follows the path of other technology that becomes ubiquitous in basically 10, 15 years or something like that. Uh, where do you think are the, the biggest areas of opportunity?
Elad Inbar: So the biggest opportunity is actually, uh, in the service side of that, how do we enable business owners okay.
And, and, you know, build their trust in this type of technology. That, that’s the biggest opportunity. And this is something that we are working really, really hard, uh, to solve. Uh, you know, our goal, my goal to the team is basically to have robot lab offices in hundred metro areas by the end of next year.
Okay. Because when, when we think about it, um, let, let’s take, you know, the car industry as an example, uh, when, you know, everyone knows Henry Ford’s biggest invention is the production line, right? The ability to, you know, produce the model, ty and low cost, and, you know, high volume and all of that. But everyone forget another invention that probably was more important, uh, from Henry Ford, which is the car dealership model, because let’s say you are in, you know, Los Angeles, in San Diego, okay?
This guy, Henry Ford is building, uh, cars, cheap cars, okay? In Michigan, right? I’m not going to buy it from Michigan because if it breaks in Los Angeles, what, what am I going to do? Am I going to, you know, carry it with a, you know, tow it with a horse, you know, all the way to Michigan to fix it. Right? I need someone in my backyard that I can go down the street from me that can take care of me if something goes wrong.
Right? And this was the mm-hmm. In my mind, this, this, this was the pivot point that basically unlock the potential because people want this technology, they want the benefit of the technology, but they are afraid from, you know, putting their money into this type of thing if they won’t get service. So this is something that we are really, really focused on because I, I, I can guarantee our product portfolio in five years will look totally different than what it is today, right?
With the, you know, the pace of innovation, the pace of changes, everything will change. Okay? Look at. Our phones, our laptops, I mean, we are keep upgrading them every other year, right. So these kind of things will change and we’ll have new robots and, you know, Optimus eventually in 15 years, not 10, uh, will be there.
Right. But, uh, you know, we will get these type of technologies that will enable things. But again, no one will buy Optimus. Okay. In, uh, Reno, Nevada. Well, there there is a Tesla arena, Nevada in Tampa, Florida, uh, right. No one will buy that if there is no service available. Down the street from me. So that’s the biggest opportunity.
How do we unlock that, uh, you know, model where everyone feels comfortable enough to step into this, you know, new adventure, right? Of putting a robot in my business and relying on a robot, you know, for my business. Um, you know, and, and to do that, I, I, I have to have someone to take care of me. So that’s where, in my mind, at least the biggest opportunities.
John Koetsier: That’s, uh, super interesting. I was gonna bring up a counterfactual. I was gonna say, Hey, Tesla doesn’t have dealerships, but you know, essentially they had to build dealerships because they needed to solve the service issue and so they don’t have enough. I know, ’cause I drive a Tesla. Yes, it’s sometimes harder to get to them.
Uh, but uh, yeah, they had to essentially build that entirely themselves. And the cost of that, of course, is significant. Now you talked, you mentioned earlier, you’re doing a franchise model. That’s a new one. Most people, they think about franchises, they think McDonald’s, they think Wendy’s, they think something like that.
Right. You’re doing a franchise model that should help you grow quickly,
Elad Inbar: I assume. Yeah, exactly. So that, that’s, you know, you know, when we look at the, at our company, we grew year over year. We’re doing it for, uh, you know, 16 years. We, year after year, we, we grew. Um, but we got to the point, you know, especially when you look at exponential growth, right?
That the next step is so much, you know, bigger than where we are today, and we can’t do it with our resources. We can’t open, you know, 50 service centers around the country tomorrow. Uh, and we looked at different, you know, uh, growth strategies and, you know. Time and time again, the franchise model came, uh, to be the right, uh, model because we are talking about business owners okay.
That are passionate about, you know, the, the market, the about the industry, about servicing, uh, you know, customers and, you know, they, they’ll do everything, uh, in their, uh. Power to be successful because again, it’s their business. We train them on everything that we know. We have all the training materials.
We have, you know, hundreds and hundreds of hours of, um, uh, online learning system on every product that we, uh, we provide. We have, uh, you know, on site training, we have all the SOPs, the standard operating procedures and everything, but we just missing the people on the ground. And, you know, marry, marry these two together.
Okay. This is basically an unstoppable, uh, uh, machine. And I think this will, what will unlock the biggest potential here because again, business owners are waiting to have someone down the street from them.
John Koetsier: Super interesting. I wanna thank you for taking this time and, uh, for having the interesting conversation.
Elad Inbar: Yeah. Thank, thank you for having me.
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