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The UK robotics sector has a visibility problem, not an innovation problem. While the technology is advancing fast and the commercial opportunity is growing, too few robotics businesses are cutting through with the audiences that matter most: customers, policymakers, investors and talent. That is why we have spoken to one of the sector’s most engaged voices on the topic – Rory Daniels at techUK – to understand what is holding adoption back, where the narrative is failing, and why communications now matter as much as capability.
For many years, in the UK the uptake of robots in industrial settings, including factories and distribution centres, has ticked up by a few percentage points every year. While this trend is positive, the UK’s increasingly falling behind other countries, resulting in lower rates of productivity and economic growth.
There are a few big barriers to adoption. First, there’s a huge lack of knowledge and understanding around whether a business should adopt a robot, including what the robot can or can’t do. There’s also a lack of skills and talent when it comes to procuring and integrating robots, as well as a real lack of funding for the large upfront investment often required to purchase robots.
Underpinning all this is a comparatively low appetite for risk in the UK compared to other geographies.
There are a few key reasons why the UK’s robotics opportunity isn’t making it into the mainstream. One is that there aren’t enough vocal or national champions – a key driver behind our decision at techUK to create a dedicated Robotics programme. Another is that the sector isn’t good enough at telling the exciting, positive story of the opportunities of robotics – from creating highly skilled jobs and making workers more productive to strengthening the UK’s manufacturing and logistics industries.
Perhaps the most prevalent is that all robots are expensive and hard to operate. While indeed many robots do require large upfront investments, this certainly isn’t the case for all of them. In fact, every year the upfront cost of purchasing a robot is falling drastically. At the same time, robots are quickly becoming more intelligent, autonomous, intuitive, and user-friendly to operate.
Many UK businesses also believe that adopting robots comes with too much risk. However, given how quickly businesses in many other countries and markets are adopting these technologies, the even bigger risk is being left behind.
I completely agree – the UK has a massive opportunity to lead on developing and deploying the next wave of robotics technologies, particularly as these increasingly intersect with advances in Artificial Intelligence, semiconductors, and connectivity. It’s exciting to see that parts of government recognise this, even if industry would like to see even more ambition, funding, and strategy.
Many robotics companies are making the most of the opportunity, often by getting stuck into techUK’s policy advocacy activity. For example, this could look like joining our ministerial roundtables to share their priorities and asks, feeding into our government consultation responses, featuring as case studies in our policy reports, or speaking at our events.
This is the right time for robotics companies to get plugged into the UK’s robotics ecosystem. If they don’t, the risk is that they won’t be in the room when important decisions around funding, regulation, or strategy are taken.
Across all emerging technologies within my remit, I would say that the industry narrative is absolutely at the heart of policy decisions and wider awareness. After all, industry’s always the first to know which technologies or applications are coming down the line (as they’re developing them). We spend a lot of time communicating and sharing these insights with other businesses and government to ensure the UK remains ahead of the curve.
While the UK does have a handful of companies at the cutting-edge of humanoid robotics, generally speaking this type of robot – along with most of the hype – can be found in the US and China. There, companies such as Figure and BYD are investing incredible sums of money into creating ‘general-purpose’ robots that can perform a wide range of tasks at least as well as humans. As a result, the main opportunities for UK companies are typically in more specialised robots – ones that perform specific tasks very well. Luckily for us, it’s these robots that are far more likely to produce real, tangible value for businesses, and much sooner too. Examples include drones that clean wind turbines, ‘robot dogs’ that inspect nuclear sites, or pavement robots that deliver groceries. At least in the near future, very few businesses will require a humanoid robot. UK companies should focus on the parts of their operations that would most benefit from automation, work with experts to explore whether robotics is part of the solution, and if so, start with specialised robots that have a proven capability in that area.
Firstly, ‘intensifying’ is certainly the right word, as many experts expect key skills gaps in robotics, engineering, and AI to continue widening over the coming years. This has led to everything from the proliferation of university courses in Robotics & AI to the growth of companies such as Quanser who provide innovative solutions in robotics education.
Speaking anecdotally, many people of my generation want to join a company with real impact, and these companies are often great at communicating through videos and socials in a way that clearly demonstrates this – think clips of humanoid robots washing dishes, driverless cars offering ridesharing services a city’s streets, or robotics helping to replace coral reefs in Australia.
When communicated effectively, a company’s public profile and brand enable them to be part of the conversation about where the tech is moving and why this matters – this is the space in which job seekers increasingly find meaning and the motivation for real impact.
The UK’s home to lots of world-leading robotics companies, many of which are well versed when it comes to selling their products overseas. As a result, around 80% of their revenue comes from international markets. Despite this, there’s much more we could be doing to promote our robotics companies abroad and empower them to capture new opportunities in growing or more mature markets than ours.
The single biggest thing we can do is to help our robotics companies scale, as many fail to reach the size necessary to begin to look beyond the UK. This typically requires access to sufficient ‘growth capital’ from investors, which is only possible if companies can tell a compelling story about why they exist, what value their company will capture, and how their robots will transform existing processes or industries. In other words, effective marketing and storytelling is the prerequisite for investment, growth, and international expansion.
I’d always recommend checking out what organisations like techUK offer when it comes to providing regular thought leadership opportunities. These will typically do the ‘heavy lifting’ in terms of designing graphics, promoting content via newsletters, providing speaking opportunities, and marketing on socials. Companies can then experiment with different messages and methods of communication before doubling down on what works, potentially by allocating additional internal resource to build their own dedicated capability.
Well, big surprise but the first thing I’d suggest is checking out what we’re up to at techUK, as we’re often speaking to and working with many of the UK’s leading robotics and AI companies. You can subscribe to our free monthly Tech & Innovation newsletter here.
I’d also recommend following me on LinkedIn as every week I post about which technologies are coming down the line, what we’re doing to advance the UK’s robotics sector, and how UK businesses can get involved.
Beyond this, I’d check out what leading Venture Capital firms and their portfolio companies are up to in this space (FOV Ventures and Britbots are great examples), plus I’d listen to podcasts like Robot Talk.
I’d say my favourite robot is probably WALL-E, because ‘he’ showed a whole generation of children and adults that robots have the potential to be a net positive for humanity. Societal attitudes are already a major barrier to adoption in the UK and I’m always keen to explore what more we can do to tell a more nuanced and compelling story about how robots are a vital piece of the puzzle. For example, when it comes to caring for our ageing population, bringing those who are no longer economically active back into our workforce, performing highly precise medical procedures in hospital, or defending our soldiers on the battlefield. Or, yes, packing rubbish into small cubes and then stacking it!
Rory leads techUK’s Emerging Tech activity, working with the UK’s most innovative companies to advance the development and deployment of everything from robotics and quantum to space and gaming tech – all with the aim of making the UK a world-leader in the technologies of tomorrow. Last year, Rory launched techUK’s Robotics activity. He has since served as a Judge for the Global Space Awards and was recently appointed to the UK government’s expert Robotics Advisory Group.
For anyone looking to build their brand, talk to us at Brands2Life about how we can help build credibility, influence policy conversations, attract talent, support fundraising and stand out in an increasingly competitive global market. We’ve worked with Universal Robots, Dexory, Ocado Technology and others to get cut-through – get in touch at [email protected].
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