As technologies converge, a brave new world of branding is emerging.
At Dusted, looking across our recent work in IoT, telecoms, security, access systems and automotive, we’re seeing technological advances find common ground in a whole new business arena. Robotics.
As connected intelligence gains the ability to act in the physical world, branding gains a bigger canvas. What these machines promise, their form, their ingredients and their behaviour will help determine their place in our lives and position in the market.
And that’s where the bigger brand story starts to unfold.
Think less Terminator. More Knight Rider. Maybe a twist of Transformers.
Hollywood has given robots an imposing dress code. Usually metal. Often menacing. Sometimes cute. But if that’s the future we’re expecting, we may be looking in the wrong direction.
Some robots will resemble humans. Many already in service look like mechanical dogs or wheeled waste bins. Your first encounter might collect your shopping or help look after older people. It could simply have four wheels and passenger seats.
Across the sectors we work in, capabilities developed for different markets are converging around intelligence that can act around us.
The automotive industry is creating increasingly intelligent connected experiences that can travel from home to pocket and on to the road. SpaceX’s Starlink extends connectivity beyond terrestrial networks. Secure identity credentials establish what people or machines are allowed to do.
A robot’s intelligence may draw on shared cloud models adapted to different hardware. A ghost moving from machine to machine. Together with agentic AI that plans and acts towards a goal, and sensing that interprets surroundings, these capabilities enable increasingly focused yet adaptable autonomy.
Robots are already working at scale
The International Federation of Robotics reports almost 250,000 professional service robot shipments in 2025, up 24%. Transportation and logistics accounted for nearly half. Consumer robot sales reached 34.2 million, mainly machines carrying out domestic tasks. These figures don’t mean millions of households have acquired an artificial member of the family, they concern specific jobs.
In April 2026, Starship Technologies reported over 3,000 delivery robots across 300-plus locations in eight countries, with ten million deliveries completed including food. Seven markets were European, including the UK, Germany, Finland and Estonia. The future has, among other things, developed a practical interest in lunch.
On the road, Waymo reported 3,000 vehicles and over 400,000 weekly US rides in February 2026, targeting a million weekly rides by year end. Britain opened applications for passenger pilots in May. Waymo began supervised autonomous testing in London in April and plans commercial rides in Munich towards the end of 2027. For these European markets, the outlook is still preparation and testing, compared with established US services.
Above the road, Wing and Walmart plan over 270 US drone delivery locations in 2027. Closer to home, Wing and Apian already transport NHS medical samples in south-west London, reporting five-minute flights for journeys that could take 40 minutes by road.
It’s not just about commercial industry. The domestic horizon is ambitious.
Despite Hollywood’s persistent rumours of humanity’s imminent demise at the hands of Murderbots, our android companions are being assigned more helpful roles. While inspection machines reduce exposure to hazardous areas, care system bots assist with lifting, mobility, monitoring and empathic communication.
Japan’s 2022 care survey, cited in a 2026 study, reported robot adoption at 43.7% of nursing homes for older people, including transfer aids and monitoring systems. IFR recorded 8,400 surgical robot sales worldwide in 2025.
Morgan Stanley’s 2025 forecast envisages over a billion humanoid robots in service by 2050, including 80 million in homes, with adoption accelerating in the late 2030s.
Tesla, a brand famous for electric cars, now links vehicle autonomy and humanoid robotics within its AI strategy. Its Tesla-bot Optimus even sounds ready for a Transformers cameo. Tesla’s Q2 2026 update described installing production lines for initial training and development robots. It projected over $25 billion of 2026 capital expenditure across its wider AI and manufacturing programme.
Collaborative connections are becoming concrete
GM and NVIDIA are collaborating across vehicles, factories and robots. In Ireland, ANYbotics, dormakaba and LEGIC have piloted an inspection robot passing through controlled doors using a secure digital credential. The robot can get on with its job because the building knows where it is allowed in. We explored this convergence in what LEGIC Connect 26 revealed about branding, robots and the future of access control.
October’s gatherings reflect this convergence. Network X in Vienna and Capacity Europe in London run from 13 to 15 October. TechEx Europe follows in Amsterdam on 19 and 20 October, with a Physical AI programme.
Network X explores physical AI infrastructure, intelligent home experiences and the shift from connectivity to outcomes. At Capacity Europe, Colt CEO Keri Gilder’s “The Convergence Moment” keynote examines networks evolving around AI agents and autonomous platforms.
These are brand issues. Buyers need to recognise whose contribution matters and why it is worth choosing. Technology suppliers may find their next growth opportunity in a robotics market they haven’t yet explored.
More useful machines. More human questions.
Job displacement is a real concern. Based on employers’ expectations, the World Economic Forum estimates robotics and autonomous systems could cause a net decline of five million jobs by 2030. But growth and disruption can happen together. The same technologies also drive demand for fast-growing roles.
Care research offers a different outlook. A 2026 study of Japanese nursing homes found robot adoption reduced staff-retention difficulties and increased employment of care workers and nurses on flexible contracts. This challenges the assumption that every robot replaces a person.
Assistance with monitoring or physical tasks could ease pressure on health and social care, making more room for the human attention people need.
Robots of character and distinction
Increasingly, smart products can listen, reply, remember preferences and act on our behalf. Robotics brings those interactions into shared physical space, creating the possibility of stronger affinities between people and branded technology. Once a machine responds to us, its character becomes part of the experience.
C-3PO in Star Wars carried a recognisable voice and personality that generations warmed to. Alexa made talking to technology familiar. The movie HER took relationships to a rom-com extreme, with a man falling in love with an adulterous operating system. Most businesses won’t put that outcome in the brief, but distinctive character could make a product people trust and enjoy returning to.
This opens exciting territory for sensory branding. A voice expresses personality through accent, pace and language. Sonic identity can signal readiness, acknowledge a request or reassure us that something is happening. Distinct familiar naming can galvanise recognition.
We explored all this through Mahindra’s EV brand development, including briefing composer A.R. Rahman on sonic identity. We also articulated sub-branding for INGLO, its electric vehicle architecture, and MAIA, its artificial intelligence architecture. Sound expressed the experience while named ingredient brands made underlying innovation visible across successive models.
Such architecture can also support future licensing to other brand partners, giving the technology a recognisable promise beyond the original product platform.
Making the ingredients desirable
A distinct name and proposition can make an invisible ingredient desirable. Intel Inside brought the processor into the purchase decision. Snapdragon gives computing capabilities a recognisable identity across the products it powers.
Robotics offers similar possibilities for businesses providing intelligence, connectivity or secure access. A capability used across several machines could become a recognised reason to choose them.
A memorable name helps recognition. Its proposition and proof give it a reason to matter to manufacturers and users. A delivery arriving as promised makes dependable connectivity tangible. A robot entering a restricted area with permission makes secure identity understandable.
A reassuring character can make a robot easier to work with. Consistent language, clear acknowledgement and predictable responses help people know what happens next.
Some brands will answer back
Interactive robots also become part of the masterbrand experience of the businesses deploying them.
Imagine a hotel service robot politely pausing to let you pass, acknowledging your request and explaining when your bags will arrive. Those small exchanges could reinforce the welcome the hotel promises. An impatient beep and a blocked corridor would tell a rather different story.
In hospitality, robots are best used to supplement people, preserving access to human help. Brand reputation depends on creating opportunities for better service not dehumanising them.
The personality needs to suit the role. A delivery robot might earn a smile. A learning assistant might need patience and encouragement. A system supporting someone in a care setting needs warmth, clarity and dependable behaviour. Giving everything the same chirpy voice would miss the point.
Familiarity needs boundaries
Affinity depends on honest expectations. A reassuring voice needs performance to match. People need to understand what a machine is, what it can do and how they retain control.
At TechEx Europe, Roshni Lulla and Sara Filipcic of the Institute for Humane Robotics will explore trust, empathy and human relationships with robots.
In China, rules effective from July 2026 require services providing sustained human-like emotional AI interaction to disclose that users are interacting with AI. Their scope is specific, but the principle matters for experience design.
Getting your brand ready for robotics
This opportunity reaches businesses that may never manufacture a robot. Existing capabilities could attract new audiences and product development partners. Brand and communications work must make that contribution clear, desirable and credible.
For autonomous and robot products, positioning and proposition establish a useful, differentiated role. Naming, identity, voice and sonic branding give it character. Each interaction should express the same promise.
For ingredient technologies, brand architecture makes expertise visible across products and partners. Clear propositions and proof turn specifications into reasons to choose, giving manufacturers and users a benefit they can recognise.
For masterbrands deploying robotics, experience design connects machine behaviour to reputation. Messaging and activation explain how the service improves, helping staff and customers understand its value and limits.
At Dusted, we connect strategy, identity and activation to make innovation meaningful in the market. Explore our branding for technology and AI.
Make innovation meaningful.
The next great brand experience may answer back. Now is the time to decide what yours has to say. Talk to us to build your next brand opportunity with Dusted.
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