Back in April 1, 2014, Honda put out an online video, advertising a new way to buy a Fit compact car. Users could build their own vehicles, tapping into the artisanal trend at the time (complete with hipsters living in lofts). The kicker, Amazon drones delivering every component to the self-important DIY couple.
Thankfully, it was an April Fool's Day joke, but it marked a point in the hype cycle: When a new technology gets overpromoted and starts setting unrealistic expectations for users. Nearly every major technology hits that point where people get enthralled by the new and start looking for problems that the solution might just address (see also the current mania over ChatGPT).
Drone technologies have followed that route, says Dwight Klappich, vice president and fellow in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice. Once seen as a way for warehouses to track down materials and possibly move materials around indoors, drones are losing ground to mobile robots. There are still several industrial uses for drones such as inspecting hard-to-reach equipment or delivery goods in areas with poor infrastructure. But when it comes to moving boxes along a factory or warehouse floor, robots and people can do it much better.
And spending on robots should only increase. As companies continue to struggle to fill positions, automation may become the only answer in the coming years.
"I just can't get enough people, so I need the automation ," Klappich says. "If you look at all the statistics , you estimate that the the GDP in the U.S. is going to grow 2.5%, but the labor pool is only going to grow 0.5%., we've got a problem."
