Which industries use physical AI?

Manufacturing, transportation and logistics, energy and resources, smart cities and other real-world physical environments, especially in factories, warehouses, and the field, benefit from physical AI.

What are trends in physical AI?

Some trends identified by Gartner include “the shift from experimentation to industrialization,” “the rise of end-to-end professional and managed” services, the prioritization of “safety, compliance and simulation-driven risk mitigation,” the integration of information and operational technologies, and the growth of “specialized MLOps for the physical world.”

What are physical AI services?

According to Gartner, physical AI services are “professional and managed services that help organizations plan, design, build, integrate, deploy and operate AI-enabled physical systems” and can “span strategy, model development, integration, testing and deployment, and ongoing support and maintenance” to “ensure that physical AI systems work safely, meet performance targets and comply with industry and regulatory standards.”

Physical AI enables autonomous machines to perceive, understand, and perform complex actions in the real (physical) world. In a system, physical AI includes vehicles, ships, machines, drones, robots, and sensors connected to networks.

What is an Emerging Market Quadrant?

Gartner’s Emerging Market Quadrant is designed to help clients understand the dynamics of relatively new and fast-moving market capabilities and form shortlists of technology providers to explore when making tech buying, partnering, acquisition and investment decisions.

NTT DATA named a Market Shaper for Physical AI Services

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Physical AI is rapidly evolving to scale in the enterprise

The Gartner® Emerging Market Quadrant for Physical AI Services – Established Vendors assesses 27 providers within the emerging Physical AI Services market.

According to Gartner analysis, “Market Shapers” – the upper-right corner of the quadrant, the Market Shapers quadrant represents the vendors most likely to drive disruption in the emerging PAIS market. These vendors have moved beyond experimentation and are beginning to materially redefine how AI operates in physical environments.

It is our view that NTT DATA distinguishes itself with global applied innovation, an edge-to-robotics stack, including a fully managed platform, and active offering capabilities in production and advanced field environments.

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FAQ

Our capabilities

Real-time
edge-native intelligence
Advanced
network-native delivery
Expert
simulation, robotics and digital twins
Continuous
orchestration and lifecycle governance
Enterprise-scale
production and management services

3

Market Shaper disruption areas explained by Gartner

7

Market Shapers identified by Gartner

27

Services providers evaluated by Gartner

4

Quadrant characterizations presented by Gartner

Get ready to explore the future of physical AI

Embedding real-time intelligence into machines and operations has significant benefits for factories, warehouses, cities and critical infrastructure. Physical AI interacts directly with the material world, and together, edge AI and physical AI bring the intelligence that allows machines to sense, decide and act in real time. Physical AI reduces latency, improves safety and enables enterprise automation at scale.

Talk to our experts

“

Physical AI is transforming how organizations operate across industries, but success depends on deploying it securely and safely. NTT DATA's comprehensive portfolio of Physical AI solutions helps clients build more intelligent operations that improve productivity, strengthen operational performance and deliver measurable business value.

”

Shahid Ahmed

Head of Edge Services, NTT DATA, Inc.

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Business advantages

Higher productivity
Automate repetitive, labor-intensive or time-sensitive tasks in factories, warehouses, hospitals, retail spaces, farms and logistics networks.
Lower operating costs
Reduce manual effort, downtime, waste, rework and energy use to lower labor, maintenance, materials and facility costs.
Improved safety
Allow robots, autonomous vehicles, drones and smart machines to do the dangerous work, including heavy lifting, hazardous inspections and emergency response.
Better experiences
Enable faster delivery, smarter in-store service, more reliable field service, personalized environments and improved availability of products or services.
New revenue opportunities
Create new offerings such as autonomous services, predictive maintenance subscriptions, smart infrastructure, robotics as a service or AI-enabled products.

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Technical strengths

Real-time sensing and decision-making
Combine sensors, computer vision, edge AI, robotics and control systems to interpret the real world and act immediately.
Greater autonomy
Move, adapt, navigate, inspect and manipulate objects, and respond to changing environments with less human intervention.
Closed-loop optimization
Sense, analyze, act and learn continuously from outcomes, improving process control, machine performance and operational precision.
Edge intelligence
Run AI close to where physical activity happens to reduce latency, improve resilience and limit the need to send sensitive data to the cloud.
Digital and physical system integration
Connect AI models, IoT devices, robotics, digital twins, industrial systems and enterprise platforms, making physical operations more measurable and programmable.

Access the report

Explore how Gartner assesses physical AI services providers and discover the benefits for your enterprise.

Gartner® does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. GARTNER is a trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner, Emerging Market Quadrant for Physical AI Services — Established Vendors, By Katie Gove et. al, 8 June 2026