How to make money (billions) in the robotics / AI industry

This is the second part of the five part series on the 5 tech sectors that can make you a billionaire right now to the next five decades. The first part has been reviewed at some length how you can start making some cool money right now in the Virtual Reality and / or Augmented Reality sectors. Today we turn our focus to robotics / AI industry.

Robotics / AI industry goes back to 1940s and 1950s when Alan Turing imagined a time when humans would not be able to distinguish between machine and human intelligence. In 1950 Alan Turing published a landmark paper in which he speculated about the possibility of creating machines that think; and he later came up with his Turing Test - as a test that would be used to find out whether machine intelligence had caught up with human intelligence.

Since the 1950s, Artificial Intelligence has been developing albeit slowly, but in the last decade we have seen remarkable achievements both in the intelligence parts and in the development of truly capable robotic humanoids. In the current world, we have Artificial Intelligent Systems that can not be beaten by humans in some highly complex brain-intensive games such as Chess, Jeopardy, and Go. From then on, robotics / AI has gone ahead to acquire the capabilities to talk to humans, drive cars, diagnose diseases, perform surgery, compose music, write movie scripts and novels, edit movies, draw pictures, in pictures, operate appliances, provide security, do laundry, clean dishes, and perform numerous other home chores, including taking care of the little ones and old ones alike who constantly require nanny services.

As robotics / AI continue to flourish, humans continue to lose their jobs. The job losses due to technological advancements have worried many, but if you are one of the smart ones you can take advantage of the robotics / AI developments to make a few billions in the newly formed industry in these three ways:

1. Hire out robots that perform basic household chores

One job that a robot can replace right now is the job done by mama nguo or even any other job done by the housemaid. These jobs include doing dishes, washing, cleaning and organizing the house, ironing, cooking and taking care of the kids. Over the decades, robots have been created to do these jobs but at specialized levels. That is, one robot could cook, another wash dishes, yet another clean the house, and a specialized nanny robot could take care of the kids. Today, there is a robot that can do all these jobs - and she is not very expensive to own.


Meet Mahru-Z, a robot with a human like body developed by South Korean scientists back in 2010 that can clean, put clothes in a washing machine and even heat food in a microwave. "The most distinctive strength of Mahru-Z is its visual ability to observe objects, recognize the tasks needed to be completed and execute them. It recognizes people, can turn on microwave ovens, washing machines and toasters, and also pick up sandwiches, cups and whatever else it senses as objects, "You Bum-Jae, head of the cognitive robot center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology told the Korea Times at the time of Mahru-Z's launch.

If you can get your hands to a robot like that, then your work would be simple - hire out the robot house to house and charge a premium and a half for your household services. Before every house gets their own robots, you would have minted your cash from the all-purpose robot.

By the way, go ahead and go to Google "All purpose robots" to find out all other robots out there that you can buy right now.

2. Setup a robotic / AI delivery service

"Autonomous delivery robots, once the exclusive purview of the 1980s sci-fi movies, are coming to a city near you, with promises of reduced labor costs, incre
ased efficiency and the reduction of cars," wrote TheGuardian in an article meant to educate the public how robots will revolutionize delivery services across the globe. I say, you do not have to wait for someone to bring these robots to your city - you can be that guy how changed how delivery services are done within Nairobi and its environs.

Yesterday Fredrick Ombako put up a post on his Facebook showing how traditional malls are closing down around the world. He wrote:

The shopping malls are dying - if not dead already - globally. Why? A new Talkwalker report shows that the growing number of millennials is the reason. They prefer digital solutions to retailing.

With that, giant retailers are closing shops. Since they are mostly anchor tenants in various malls, their death spells doom for malls too.

How are retailers responding? Domino's Pizza made $ 4.7 billion in digital sales by letting a chatbot do the work. Amazon, of course, is making it big in online retailing and has invested further in "understanding consumers' spending behaviors and sentiment."