By Digital Journal Staff
March 23, 2026
Photo by Simon Kadula on Unsplash
Robots look great in a lab. The floors are clean, the lighting is controlled, and tasks unfold exactly as planned.
Even if that task is taking a Queen dance break.
It’s easy to watch robotics demos and assume the future of automation is just a matter of scaling what already works.
In a conversation at CES 2026, Mikell Taylor, head of robotics strategy at General Motors, makes the case to Ani Kelkar, partner at McKinsey’s Boston office, that this version of the future is incomplete. Robot talk has historically and colloquially been about replacing people with fully autonomous systems.
Rosie on The Jetsons, anyone?
Instead, it’s time to think about how humans and machines work together in environments that are unpredictable, high-pressure, and far less forgiving than any demo. For instance, in manufacturing, on a factory floor.
This means designing systems that can handle real-world variability and building robots that are tested where the work happens. It also means acknowledging that the hardest problems are not isolated to one layer of the technology. Progress depends on getting the whole system to work together, from hardware and software to how people use it day to day.
In the interview, Taylor focuses on what it takes to deploy robotics in real environments, from how teams work with automation to how systems are designed and tested.
Here are three key moments from the conversation.
On the myth of fully autonomous “lights-out” manufacturing and the necessity of human collaboration
“The nuance that can’t be overlooked is that success will rely on how well people and automation work together. I am not a believer in lights-out manufacturing. I’ve worked long enough in robotics to know that stage is a wonderful North Star, but it never becomes a reality…The roles that the people perform may be different, but they’re still going to make the orchestra play together to get the kind of manufacturing capability and capacity that we want.”
On the need to prioritize real-world testing over flashy laboratory demonstrations
“Fundamentally, it requires engineers to be willing to hear that their baby is ugly, and for them to take that baby out into the world as soon as possible and hear that. The longer something stays in a lab or in shiny videos, the less successful it’s going to be…. We need to treat it like any other equipment and say, ‘Let’s try this. What do you think? How can I make it better?’ We need to involve workers in the process and ensure they’re part of the design effort to create a product people want and love, not just a cool robot.”
On the greatest challenge facing the robotics industry
“You’ll hear some companies and some researchers say, ‘The software is a commodity. The problem’s in hardware.’ Some other folks will say, ‘The hardware is a commodity. Now the problems are in software.’ Neither is true. The problems are everywhere. The success lies in the fully integrated system that is co-designed top to bottom in the stack, physical and virtual.”
Read the full interview with Taylor here.
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