1 2 3 4 Robots in the Wild 5 Many companies have already seen the benefits of robotics in controlled spaces, from lower production costs to higher productivity and increased capacity for analytics. Advanced robotics is offering a path to push the intelligence of the digital world out into the physical one, amplifying these advantages and unlocking new capabilities in industries that have not traditionally benefited from robotics in the past. Advances in robotics, sensors, speech recognition and computer vision are combining with shrinking hardware 38,39 costs to make robots accessible for companies and individuals that haven’t traditionally used them. IDC predicts that the global robotics market will reach $210 billion by 2022; only half of that will be in manufacturing, 40 the traditional mainstay of robotics sales. At the same time, the rollout of 5G networks will unlock opportunities for all industries to extend their autonomous capabilities outside of contained settings like warehouses and production facilities—and into the open world. More than half (54 percent) of insurance executives expect their organizations will use robotics in uncontrolled environments within the next two years. Some of the world’s biggest companies are already using this shift to find new ways to serve customers and improve operations. Amazon’s small, six-wheeled delivery vehicle, called “Scout,” can autonomously navigate real- 41 world obstacles like trash cans, pets and snow blowers. In the building industry, Advance Construction Robotics’ TyBot is using repurposed self-driving-car technology to automate the physically demanding task of tying rebar, 42 allowing the job to get completed faster and more safely. 42 Technology Vision for Insurance 2020 | We, the Post-Digital People