Imagine this: You’re retired, lounging in your favorite chair, feet up, sipping something chilled as the sun sets. Your home is clean, everything is organized, the laundry is neatly folded, the trash has been put out for tomorrow’s pick up, and to make the day even better, you can smell your favorite meal being prepared. Did you do all of this? Are your doting adult children making up for bad behavior in their adolescence? Did you win the lottery and hire staff? No, this is a new tech-enabled retirement life. Your robot did it all. This sounds like sci-fi. And for some, it sounds like something between cool and creepy. However, a humanoid robot could soon become a new home staple and expense in retirement living.
Home service robots have long been a story of futuristic fantasy. However, as lifestyle and demographic trends converge with rapid advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, fantasy is fast becoming a reality. One day your retirement financial plan might include not just your savings and investments, health plan, and Social Security but also a line item to finance a sleek cyber companion and caregiver programmed to assist you in your older age.
In 2021, Elon Musk announced a commitment to developing Optimus, a humanoid robot designed to work in factories and, eventually, our homes. At Tesla’s 2024 annual shareholders’ meeting, Musk debuted the robot, showing it folding laundry and suggesting that someday, the robot might cook our meals, clean our homes, and even teach our children.
Now, California-based robotics firm Figure reports the development of a second-generation humanoid robot, F.02. F.02 will first hit BMW factory floors as part of an evolving cyber workforce. Declaring it the most advanced artificial intelligence hardware, Figure’s founder, Brett Adcock, envisions the F.02 robot becoming a home butler. Standing at 5’ 6” tall and about 155 pounds, F.02 walks on two legs, has two five-fingered hands, can lift about 44 pounds, and work 20 hours before recharging. But F.02 promises to be more than a robot helper; it might also be a cyber companion. In collaboration with OpenAI, Figure’s F.02 robot is equipped with natural language capabilities, multiple microphones, and speakers, enabling basic conversations with humans.
More development is needed to increase functionality and reduce costs to make F.02 the home butler you may be looking for in retirement. Goldman Sach’s research suggests that the cost of producing humanoid robots is decreasing, currently between $30,000 and $150,000 per unit. Over time, robots will be more affordable and could become a standard consumer home appliance. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has suggested that humanoid robots could be even more common and plentiful than cars. Kelly Blue Book reports that the average new car in the United States costs about $48,000.00. If the price of robots can be made competitive and the services they provide valuable, Huang may not be wrong.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence are converging with demands driven by global demographic transition, where the number of older people is dramatically increasing and the number of younger people is declining. Effectively, robots can be considered a key technology to support an aging society. In turn, a rapidly aging population will drive market demand for robots. How might robots fit into your retirement?
Home Helper
Traditionally, families have taken the lead in caring for aging parents and loved ones. But lifestyles are changing. Today’s families are smaller, more spread out, and often dual-income, with less time to dedicate to care for mom and dad. Moreover, many parents do not wish to be a burden to their adult children. The old model of multigenerational households is fading, and with it, the availability of family caregiving. High tech may be necessary to fill in where human touch is in short supply.
Enter the robot. Advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics make the idea of a humanoid caregiver plausible and practical, potentially filling the care gap left by shifting family dynamics. Even if families are in the picture, having a robot do the routine and time-consuming tasks around an older loved one’s home provides more quality time together.
Home Health Coach
Families often manage the health of older loved ones, particularly those who live alone. Imagine, for a moment, a robot that serves as a home health coach to monitor, manage, and motivate health behaviors. A robot could monitor changes in activity, mood, eating habits, vital signs, etc. Medication management is a major challenge for individuals and even attentive family caregivers, but a robot sees everything and forgets nothing. A robot might even serve as a home health coach urging its retiree owner to eat well, exercise regularly, and engage with other humans.
CyberBuddy
Humanoid robots are being developed to navigate complex environments, hold conversations, and even learn their users’ habits, likes, and dislikes. Robots could also be about more than doing work; they could enhance quality of life.
Older consumers and government-funded programs are already purchasing AI appliances that sit on end tables and kitchen counters, such as ElliQ, to support social well-being and connection. Loneliness has been linked to poor physical health, with similar impacts as smoking nearly a full pack of cigarettes daily. Now imagine a robot that can assist with everything from getting dressed in the morning to cooking dinner in the evening and be a little cyber companion to chit-chat with throughout the day.
Forget The Car, Buy The Robot
Technology is ubiquitous, and people of all ages are increasingly comfortable its role in supporting nearly all aspects of life. Baby Boomers and Gen X have all experienced the rise of personal computers, the Internet, smartphones, wearables, smart speakers, increasingly autonomous cars, etc. For many, integrating technology into daily life is second nature. A robot that helps out around the house? Not so far-fetched. Put storied visions of the Jetson’s Rosey, Terminator, or Wall-E aside, humanoid robots are coming and will likely become part of life in older age. Their availability will be for a select few at first, but they will ultimately become widely available as they become more affordable—much the way all technology makes its way into our lives.
Many newly retired people buy a new car as their retirement reward after decades of work and to mark the start of a new life chapter. Perhaps the new retirement plan will be to forget the new car and buy the robot.
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