Mbodi AI

What do they actually do

Mbodi AI makes software that lets people teach industrial robots new tasks using plain‑language instructions and short demonstrations, instead of writing low‑level code. Their platform runs as a software layer on top of existing robot hardware, interprets the user’s intent, converts it into safe motion plans using a mix of AI and classical planning, and learns from every run so the robot improves over time mbodi.ai The Robot Report Mbodi MLE.

Today the company is in early deployments: they’ve shown public demos, have an early‑access signup for their Mbodi Language Engine, collaborated with ABB Robotics, and ran a paid proof‑of‑concept with a Fortune 100 consumer‑goods company focused on high‑mix packaging tasks mbodi.ai Mbodi MLE TechCrunch The Robot Report.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Factory operations managers at CPG and other high‑mix manufacturers: They lose time and money whenever a robot needs reprogramming and want to switch tasks quickly without long engineering lead times.
• Plant automation engineers and systems integrators: They spend weeks writing and validating low‑level robot code for each new task and environment, slowing delivery and increasing costs.
• Robot OEMs and vendors: They need their arms to be easier to sell and deploy; enabling end customers to teach robots themselves can raise adoption and reduce support burden (e.g., why ABB‑style partnerships are attractive).
• Line supervisors and maintenance technicians: They often rely on outside specialists for every format change; they want tools to retrain or tweak a robot quickly to cut downtime.
• Enterprise R&D and pilot teams in manufacturing: Integrating perception, planning, and continual learning from scratch is a heavy lift; they want a platform that demonstrates one‑shot demos and continual improvement without building the whole stack.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Convert existing pilots into paid rollouts by offering short, tightly scoped production pilots with Mbodi engineers on‑site to integrate, tune safety limits, and tie payment to clear success metrics; use ABB and the Fortune‑100 CPG PoC as reference wins mbodi.ai TechCrunch.
• First 50: Sign a few regional SI and OEM partnerships (start with ABB) to bundle Mbodi for high‑mix packaging lines, provide partner training and revenue share, and run targeted outbound to CPG ops teams using quantified downtime savings from early customers; publish 2–3 vertical case studies and simple ROI calculators to standardize the pitch The Robot Report mbodi.ai.
• First 100: Launch a certification program for integrators with a “pilot→production” kit (standard integrations, safety checklists, and shop‑floor training), sell subscriptions plus a paid install/remote support package, and drive volume via a partner marketplace and packaged pricing by robot brand/line type; use remote monitoring and continual learning to reduce on‑site support over time Mbodi MLE The Robot Report.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Third‑party estimates put the robot‑software market at roughly $8–10B in 2024–25, while the broader robotics and automation services spend is in the tens to low hundreds of billions annually MarketResearchFuture ABI Research Grand View Research.

Bottom-up calculation:

The global installed base was about 4.66M industrial robots in 2024; using IFR’s industry shares (≈3% food & beverage, ≈4% plastics) implies ~300k+ robots in CPG/packaging‑adjacent use cases today IFR IFR industry breakdown PDF. If software is sold at ~$3k–$10k per robot per year, that segment alone suggests ~$0.9B–$3B in annual software revenue potential, before broader OEM/SI channels.

Assumptions:

• Food & beverage and plastics shares are a reasonable proxy for high‑mix CPG/packaging robots accessible to Mbodi.
• Average annual software spend per robot is ~$3k–$10k including support/updates; pricing varies by task complexity and fleet size.
• Mbodi achieves broad compatibility via OEM/SI integrations so the relevant share of that installed base is reachable.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Intrinsic (Alphabet): Robot software platform focused on making industrial robots easier to program and integrate, with tools for building and orchestrating robot skills.
• READY Robotics: ForgeOS provides a common interface to program and operate multiple robot brands, aimed at faster deployment and re‑tasking.
• Micropsi Industries: MIRAI uses camera‑guided machine learning to teach robots via demonstration for variable tasks in assembly and handling.
• Covariant: AI software for robotic manipulation built around a general‑purpose model, used primarily in logistics picking but expanding to broader robotics applications.
• Realtime Robotics: Real‑time motion planning and collision avoidance software that simplifies robot programming and adapts paths to changing environments.