Robotics market size surges as automation scales across industries

Global snapshot: revenue momentum and the automation imperative

In the Robotics sector, The robotics market is expanding on the back of structural labor shortages, throughput demands, and the maturation of AI-driven perception and planning. Industry revenue is tracking a steady climb, with worldwide robotics revenues projected to approach the high tens of billions by the latter half of the decade, according to recent research from Statista’s market insights platform that points to a trajectory near $70 billion by 2028 according to recent research. While estimates vary by methodology and segment definitions, consensus among analysts is for double‑digit annual growth fueled by industrial upgrades and service‑automation use cases.

Corporate capex is tilting toward automation as manufacturers seek resiliency and cost control. The post‑pandemic drive to re-shore and modernize production, paired with logistics networks optimized for omnichannel retail, is drawing more dollars into articulated arms, collaborative robots, mobile platforms, and software orchestration. That investment is increasingly justified by improved ROI—cycle time reductions, higher overall equipment effectiveness, and safer operations—underpinned by better sensors and machine vision, AI simulation, and digital twins.

Industrial vs. service robotics: divergent curves, shared tailwinds

Industrial robots remain the backbone of the market, with installations setting fresh records and broadening beyond auto and electronics into metals, plastics, and food and beverage. The International Federation of Robotics reports that global installations hit a record in recent years, with 2022 reaching 553,000 units and momentum continuing into 2023 as China led deployments across factory floors industry reports show. That cadence reflects multi‑year modernization cycles and capex programs calibrated to throughput, quality, and safety metrics.

Service robotics, meanwhile, is scaling rapidly from smaller bases. The IFR’s World Robotics report noted that the sales value of professional service robots jumped 48% year over year to $9.2 billion, with logistics systems (such as autonomous mobile robots for warehouses) capturing the largest share data from analysts. In the field, marquee adopters are illustrating the operational impact: Amazon, for example, now deploys hundreds of thousands of robots across its fulfillment network to boost speed and accuracy while working alongside human associates company disclosures indicate. These deployments demonstrate how service robotics is moving from pilots to portfolio‑level programs in retail, healthcare, hospitality, and mining.

Regional dynamics and competitive landscape

Geographically, Asia—led by China—continues to be the gravitational center for industrial robot demand, supported by domestic manufacturers and global suppliers expanding local footprints. European and U.S. markets are also strengthening as automakers pivot to EV platforms and as general industry incrementally increases automation density. Suppliers are positioning for this demand with capacity and product expansions; ABB, for instance, opened a $150 million robotics megafactory in Shanghai to accelerate delivery and customization for regional customers according to company announcements.

Competition spans established OEMs—FANUC, Yaskawa, ABB, KUKA—alongside fast‑growing mobile robotics and software orchestration players. The landscape is defined by differentiated motion control, ease of integration, and the breadth of application libraries. Integrators and platform providers that bridge hardware with simulation, AI perception, and fleet management are gaining share, particularly in brownfield environments where retrofit complexity is high and downtime is costly.

Outlook: growth runway, pricing dynamics, and what to watch

Near‑term growth should be supported by maturing use cases—bin picking, palletizing, inspection, and autonomous material movement—paired with falling component costs in sensors and edge compute. With software subscriptions and services representing a larger slice of revenue, vendors are nudging the business mix toward recurring models, smoothing cyclicality and expanding margins. On the demand side, SMEs are increasingly viable customers as user interfaces simplify and deployment times shrink.

Risks remain: capex cycles are sensitive to interest rates and macro uncertainty, and some verticals face uneven order patterns. Yet the secular drivers—aging workforces, safety mandates, and the need for throughput—continue to favor automation. If current trajectories hold, market revenues consolidated across industrial and service segments are poised to grow at a mid‑teens annual pace, putting a cumulative market in the tens of billions firmly within reach by the end of the decade. Watch for deeper AI integration in planning and manipulation, more domain‑specific application bundles, and regional supply chain investments that shorten lead times and localize support.