Global Spending on Robots Projected to Hit $87 Billion by 2025
The global market for robotics is growing far faster than expected and is projected to reach $87 billion by 2025, according to new research by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Updating its previous estimate of $67 billion from three years ago, the management consulting firm recently revised its forecast sharply higher, mostly because of soaring consumer demand. In a new paper released today, “Gaining Robotics Advantage,” BCG projects an additional $14 billion of growth in the consumer sector to $23 billion, an increase of 156% over its earlier estimate. (See exhibit.)
“Much of the accelerated growth will come from the consumer market because of applications such as self-driving cars and devices for the home,” explains Vlad Lukic, a BCG partner and coauthor of the paper. “Projected growth in the commercial sector accounts for the rest of the adjustment—a 34% increase to 22.8 billion.”
Many factors contributed to the need to revamp the estimates. First, in the space of just one year, from 2014 to 2015, private investment in the robotics space tripled, according to BCG. Fueling the surge in interest are falling prices, rapidly advancing capabilities, and components usable in a far wider range of industries and applications than many observers had originally envisioned.
/Source: The Boston Consulting Group/
June 21, 2017