As AI enters the physical world, is Canada facing a robotics shortage?
There’s a global race underway to bring robotics into our everyday lives, with a new generation of AI-powered robots promising greater flexibility.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence mean that robots are being adopted for tasks ranging from working alongside humans in warehouses to delivering packages on city streets and inspecting dangerous locations.
What’s more, robots are increasingly capable of learning on the job – and experts say Canada will miss out if we don’t embrace adoption at this critical time.
If there’s any buzzword in artificial intelligence right now, it’s “physical AI” – something that was on full display at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
The promise is that physical systems, when equipped with sensors – machines like robots, autonomous vehicles or industrial equipment – can act logically and responsively in the world when paired with current approaches to AI.
At CES, Google and American robotics company Boston Dynamics announced they are teaming up to test AI-powered robots in Hyundai auto factories – two models a machine named atlas.
While experts say we’re still a long way from the kind of general-purpose humanoid robots that could one day live in our homes, washing dishes and folding clothesWe are in a moment where A.I. Transferring into the physical world.
Traditionally, robots are programmed from top to bottom to take a specific series of steps; This is fine for tightly controlled environments with repetitive, occasionally changing tasks, such as robotics found on a factory floor.
But using the approach that has led to so much success in generic AI means you can train robots from the bottom up, making them more “plug and play”, or essentially able to learn on the job.
This opens the door for smaller companies to adopt robotics that “don’t want to do a lot of coding and programming,” said Haley Siegel, CEO of the Canadian Robotics Council.
“When enough intelligence is involved in that process, the robot can learn on its own how to complete a task. It doesn’t need to be coded.”
This new approach means robots can not only adapt more quickly, but also perform “much more sophisticated tasks,” where “you can bring them down to the level of reasoning and thinking,” said Raquel Urtasun, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto and CEO and founder of Wabi, an autonomous trucking company.
And machines that need to move safely in dynamic environments, such as autonomous vehicles, can be trained in virtual environments.
At Wabi, Urtasun said, “What we did was to build a metaverse for self-driving, meaning a simulator that is as realistic as the real world.”
China promoting robotics innovation, adoption
As robotics technology hits a tipping point, experts say Canada is lagging behind.
At the global level, China has emerged as a leader in the industry. In 2024, it’s just over half industrial robot established worldwideD – about 295,000 of them – WAccording to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), there are in China.
Until recently, China imported most of its robotics. But this is changing rapidly – and that means the country is leaving others behind.
“China is trying to ramp up its own manufacturing,” said Suzanne Byler, IFR secretary general. “Not just producing for their own market, but they’re also focusing more on bringing robots to other parts of the world.”
Combining sophisticated hardware with today’s AI technology, robots are at the cusp of a boom, but as countries like China are catching up, Canada is lagging behind. For The National, CBC’s Nora Young breaks down the obstacles along the way.
According to ABI Research, overall global robotics market It was valued at about US$50 billion in 2025 – 11 percent more than in 2024 – and could reach US$111 billion by 2030.
At the same time, Canada adopted industrial robotics Is staggering. In 2024, the country ranked 13th in operating stocks, leaving us behind countries like Spain, India and France, and well behind leaders like South Korea, China and the US.
If you take the automotive sector out of the equation in Canada, where our adoption rates are much higher, the situation gets worse, Siegel said.
All this continues and we keep watching Sluggish productivity in Canada – an issue the industry says is related to the adoption of robotics.
“It’s enough studies There is evidence proving that companies that use and adopt robots are actually more competitive. They’re more productive,” Baylor said.
Canadian companies looking for markets
According to Siegel, Canadian companies also face challenges marketing robotics domestically.
For example, while Canada ranks fifth in the number of service-robotics companies per capita, Canadian companies are “largely discouraged because they have to sell internationally to grow,” he said.
“Every time they do that, they are widening the productivity gap here in Canada,” Siegel said — essentially exporting the region’s productivity gains.
Avidbots is a Kitchener, Ontario-based company that creates floor-cleaning robots for commercial purposes, relying on a range of sensors and AI approaches similar to those used in autonomous vehicles. Although their machines are designed and assembled in Canada, the majority of their market is not located here.
“If you look at the entire history of the company, we’ve probably deployed 15 percent in Canada,” said Pablo Molina, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer.
There are a number of reasons for the delay in adoption in Canada, he said, including lack of familiarity with robotics.
“Because of the lack of training, they don’t understand. They don’t see the ROI (return on investment), the value,” Molina said. “They think it’s OK to carry on with it the old way.”
Urtasun describes the regulatory framework in Canada as suppressive to adoption.
“The US has traditionally been very open to technology deployment, right? And really enabling innovation in a responsible way,” he said., Noting that Wabee’s trucks are operating on public roads in Texas, but not Canada, due to regulatory restrictions.
“Innovation will have to be implemented much more rapidly than what we see in Canada.”
This is “a critical moment where Canada has to be all-inclusive”. Deploying robotics better Technology, Urtasun said, “obviously in a responsible way.”
National Robotics Strategy
Industry representatives such as the Canadian Robotics Council say Canada would greatly benefit from a national robotics strategy.
While we have a new AI strategy being developed, the council’s CEO Siegel said that “If we continue to place more emphasis only on the software part, we will not be able to truly achieve the transformative aspects that these technologies promise us.”
China, South Korea, Germany and Japan all have standalone national strategies, which include specific measures around things like training, incentives and funding.
When asked about Canada’s future plans, the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development told CBC News in a statement that the Canadian government is “not pursuing a standalone national robotics strategy” at this time.
But it added that “ongoing” work on Canada’s comprehensive AI strategy will “examine a wide range of issues related to the development, commercialization and adoption of AI technologies, including applications related to physical AI systems and automation,” adding that it is “expected to address issues such as talent, adoption and public trust in AI systems.”
