Does a robot cost $2 or $35 an hour? A multitrillion-dollar market depends on how the answer

Depending on whom you ask, a robot costs $2 an hour, according to a Roland Berger study earlier this year; $10 to $12, according to JPMorgan or more than $35, according to reports on early industrial deployments. These figures appear to contradict one another. In fact, they expose the real question facing the physical AI industry: How much useful work can a robot reliably perform? Enterprises do not need robots that are inexpensive in theory. They need dependable labor in the messy conditions of a factory, warehouse, or distribution center. That distinction will determine whether physical AI remains an expensive collection of pilots or becomes a labor market measured in trillions of dollars. A robot’s hourly cost is relatively simple to calculate. Divide its purchase or lease cost…