It makes sense to develop industrial robots first*, their environment is simpler, more structured. And, again, how intelligent the robot needs to be will depend upon the task and the environment.
* Before home robots, for instance. (Of course many tasks at home are automated already: dish washing, clothes washing, drying, some cooking, robot vacuums, ....)
On the one hand "AI" has become a marketing label intended to draw in suckers. On the other hand there really are a lot of valid AI algorithms, including things as simple as linear regression. So the "AI" label can be valid.* You have to look closely.
My new hearing aids are advertised as having "AI", including advanced noise cancelation ability.** The in-office demo was impressive, we'll see how well they work over time "in the wild."
* On the other hand the label "agent" is almost always misleading. A correct definition of "A.I. agent" is something like what's given in my 1 April 2025 blog.
** My previous pair were advertised as having machine learning. I did not find that feature to be all that useful.
