We find that big players in the world of workplace automation, such as SAP, are pushing for cloud computing as the means of future AI development. We also find many startups attempting to compete with deep-pocketed entities by implementing model-shrinking techniques rooted in short-termism such as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), quantization, and Low Rank Adaptation (LoRA). However, I am sorry to break the news, but the ecosystem of large, expensive models on the cloud only benefits one party: the developers of the models themselves.
Edge deployment unlocks the true potential of physical AI. When models run at the point of action, AI stops being a software service and starts being an embedded capability. This is the vision that the cloud narrative has consistently obscured. Physical AI, deployed on the edge, enables autonomous systems that are resilient, private, fast, and genuinely owned by the organizations operating them. The future of workplace automation is a foundation.