The 2025 A3 Forum

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend my first A3 Business Forum in Orlando, Florida. For those of you who aren’t familiar with A3 or the A3 Forum, let me explain a little about the organization. A3 stands for the Association for Advancing Automation. It is a fantastic North American organization that represents 1300+ organizations involved in robotics, AI, machine vision, motion and control, and really all things industrial automation. Every year, A3 puts on trade shows, business forums, marketing seminars, and many other networking events. It is an opportunity to meet and network with thought leaders and innovators from around the industry.

The event took place on January 20^th, 21^st, and 22^nd. From beginning to end, the event was top-notch. The keynote speeches from highly respected scholars and engineers such as Ayanna Howard, Dean of Engineering at Ohio State University to Leland Melvin, NASA Astronaut and Engineer. Both were highly inspirational through their respective topics. Leland talked about how innovative members of this organization have helped to advance robotics and AI enabling us as a society to reach new heights and go even further than ever dreamt possible. Ayanna spoke about the intersection of AI and the Human mind. She talked about how we, as people, interact with our AI-enabled coworkers. From Hospital staff to those working on the factory floor, how we treat these new coworkers can be very dependent on our own personal biases. We listened as Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics provided us with an economic forecast for the next 18 months and what we can expect. Current trends show that the second half of 2025 will be the start of a boom for the industry that will continue through Q4 2026. We will start to see a slowdown in 2027, still growing, but not at the levels of 2026.

We heard from a panel of experts on AI, Humanoid, and Collaborative robotics. They discussed the future and direction of AI, how we can unlock its potential, and helped to separate fact from science fiction. Rodney Brooks of Robust.AI showed us the possibilities of collaborative robotics on the factory floor. With real-world examples of how these robotics are making the lives of our workers easier, safer, and more efficient.

There is so much more I could talk about in-depth regarding this event. As I said earlier, this was my first time attending. The amount of networking opportunities along with industry leaders and innovators made my attendance absolutely worth it. Being able to talk with the likes of Jeff Burnstein, President of A3, Jake Hall, the Manufacturing Millennial, my friends from SICK, Schneider Electric, and even meeting many new friends from ABB, The Automation Ladies, and so many others was an absolutely exciting experience. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend attending the A3 Business Forum in January 2026, I certainly hope to be there myself. And if you aren’t a member of A3, join. The resources available to members are enormous. From around the industry news, to insights, to new product news, and so much more, there’s a bit of everything for everyone regardless of what corner of the industry you reside in. I talked about networking, but it is so much more. If you are a member, get involved, I can tell you that I absolutely intend to. For now, though, I hope to see you all in Detroit for A3’s Automate Show, May 12^th through 16^th.