Confidence in intelligent robots for warehouse automation at all-time high

Covariant, a global leading AI Robotics company, surveyed over 300 logistics professionals on their current fulfillment challenges, technology investment priorities, and perception of AI Robotics. Ahead of MODEX 2022, the largest international supply chain expo, being held on March 28—31 in Atlanta, GA, the company sought to understand logistics professionals' plans for implementing AI robotics to automate warehouse picking processes.

Notable findings from the survey reveal a record-level interest in AI Robotics and planned investment across material handling operations such as sortation, induction, good-to-person order picking, and depalletization.

"Savvy logistics professionals believe the new generation of intelligent automation, AI Robotics, will solve many of today's most pervasive fulfillment center challenges," shared Peter Chen, CEO of Covariant. "We've reached a critical phase of technological viability. Covariant robots are performing autonomously, and often exceeding traditional operations, while delivering a strong business case. As supply chain challenges continue to put pressure on warehouses, prospects are expressing rising urgency to adopt our solutions."

Notable findings include:
Covariant customer Ed Shapiro, Director of Engineering at 3PL Capacity, acknowledged his similar initial sentiment, "When getting started, it can be difficult to understand the impact AI-powered solutions could have on your unique operations, but Covariant proved their expertise every step of the way. Starting with their assessment framework for benchmarking performance, to developing an ROI-centric RaaS commercial model, all the way to ensuring full-scale deployment success, Covariant demonstrated technical expertise, superior performance, and immediate value. We're keen to help others learn from our process by presenting at MODEX."

• Almost half of respondents assert that intelligent robots have become smart enough to reliably run pick-and-place stations.
• Of that group, one in four are already using AI-powered robotics or in the midst of implementation.
• The main barriers to adoption fell into two major areas for the minority who indicated they have yet to try AI Robotics:
• Uncertainty around ROI / lack of awareness of new commercial models such as Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) — 35% are concerned implementing a solution would be too expensive.
• A noisy marketplace — 16% are overwhelmed by the nuances of available solutions and difficulty in assessing the differences of each one.