Interview with the IEEE’s Dejan Milojicic: 30 technology megatrends for 2030

While generative AI has dominated much of the technology debate in recent years, the next major phase of development may increasingly involve AI systems that can perceive, interact with and act in the physical world. One of the technologies IEEE highlights as particularly important.

Interfaces are expected to move beyond conventional text-based interaction toward increasingly natural combinations of speech, video, perception and cognitive capabilities that allow machines to better understand human intentions and work alongside people. That evolution could have significant implications for robotics.

What Happened

More capable human-AI interfaces could make industrial robots and autonomous machines easier to supervise, teach and collaborate with, while advances in AI could enable robots to operate with greater autonomy in manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and agriculture. But putting increasingly intelligent machines into.

• The IEEE’s new Technology Megatrends 2030 report identifies physical AI and robotics as one of the areas with the greatest potential for significant technological advancement over the next four years.

• The report examines 30 breakthrough technologies across five broad areas – artificial intelligence, energy, health and biotechnology, space technology, and physical AI – and considers how they could reshape industries and everyday life by.

• In this Q&A with Robotics & Automation News, Milojicic discusses why IEEE expects physical AI to advance rapidly toward 2030, the growing importance of human-AI interaction, and which robotics applications could reach widespread deployment.

Key Details

Dejan Milojicic, chair of the IEEE Future Directions Committee Industry Advisory Board and HPE Fellow and vice president at Hewlett Packard Labs, has been closely involved in examining the technologies likely to shape this transition. He also considers the challenges of powering.

• Dejan Milojicic: The Technology Megatrends 2030 Report evaluates 30 breakthrough technologies across five core areas including AI, energy, health and biotech, space tech, and physical AI (robotics), to determine their potential to reshape industries.

• As trust is gained, more autonomous operations will be allowed.

• With experience in deployments, developers and operators will increase trust and remove obvious and low-hanging safety hazards.

Why It Matters

Robotics & Automation News: The IEEE report identifies physical AI as the technology area most likely to see major advances over the next four years. What technical breakthroughs are driving that acceleration, and what has changed to make this timeline more realistic.

• How can manufacturers balance the flexibility of AI-driven robots with the need for reliability, safety, and regulatory compliance in production environments?

• R&AN: Industrial automation has traditionally relied on deterministic, highly predictable systems.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by Robotics & Automation News as more details emerge