U.S. Robot Growth Broadens as Food Automation Gains Ground
Industrial robot installations in the U.S. grew above double digits in 2025, but even more important than the statistics is the source of the growth. Preliminary estimates from the International Federation of Robotics show 38,000 U.S. robot installations represented an 11 percent growth over the previous year and while the surge in auto industry contributes to volume, it is the demand from food processing companies and other industries where factory robots were rarely used.
This is important as it changes the assignment for suppliers, integrators and manufacturing plants. As always, automotive industry is the largest consumer, with 13,500 installations of robots in 2025 although it is 1 percent lower compared to last year despite being third best result for the industry in seven years. More important is the composition: robot installations in food sector increased 30 percent, putting food alongside metal, machinery and electronics segment at nearly 3,000 installations each.
United States are back on the growth track, commented IFR president Takayuki Ito. Also he pointed out growing demand for flexible automation in the food industry, which is interesting choice of words, considering that is exactly what the market seems to be heading towards.
From design perspective, food automation is not simply automotive robots with other end effectors. It often requires systems able to work with more product variation, more frequent changeover and more strict requirements on hygiene. This means that the winners of automation architecture in the industry are robots cells based on flexible sensors, reprogrammability, tooling modularity and integration technology which allows it to fit in the existing production lines and not only in new projects. As the demand shifts away from vehicle assembly programs, often with longer planning cycles and low product variety, balance between productivity, availability, redeployability and labor becomes more important.
And this is why the segment mix is so crucial, not the pure number of units. Although automotive industry will remain the largest consumer for industrial robotics in the U.S. and will define much of the demands on payload capacity, welding, handling and assembly, food and related industries signal the new market for robots able to manage varying products, packages and handling without the planning cycles specific to vehicle programs.
The recent statistics from the Association for Advancing Automation confirms this trend, referring to diversification of the demand outside of automotive industry. For U.S. manufacturing it means the beginning of a new automation cycle, which would be much less sensitive to the swings dictated by single sector.
The recovery affected the measure which says much about the level of industrial competitiveness robot density. Defined as number of industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, U.S. is now at 307 installations, pushing it up to 8th place in the world. South Korea leads at 1,220 robots, followed by Germany and Japan.
Although this can seem as vain metric, robot density gives the rough systems perspective on the level of automation in manufacturing plants. The higher robot density may indicate greater capital investments, better integration capabilities and more experience in running automated cells. Robot density does not mean that the factory operates efficiently, but shows how extensive the implementation of robotics into manufacturing process is.
For U.S. robotics market, to be on 8th place in the world is a good achievement, but far from the goal. The robot density of 307 installations indicates the significant level of automation penetration, but also leaves some room for growth in the segments which have lagged behind automotive industry in terms of robot usage. Food is one of those, combining labor-intensive nature and repetitive handling and packaging operations suitable for automation.
The international comparison is still rather discouraging. Chinese market accounts for 295,000 industrial robot installations in 2024, accounting for more than half of the global demand, with IFR estimates that China’s 2025 total is ten times higher than the American. The scale is explained by the national robotics strategy of China and corresponding government policies.
In the U.S., Association for Advancing Automation proposed a national robotics strategy, including the creation of the Federal Robotics Office and National Robotics Commission. Irrespective of whether this particular organization is formed or not, the implication for industrial robotics is obvious robot adoption is not just about purchasing hardware anymore. It is about development of engineering, integration and workforce capabilities.
The IFR predicts the robust growth of automation in North America driven by reshoring, labor shortage and demand beyond manufacturing. This forecast is consistent with the statistics from 2025. Yes, U.S. robot market recovered, but the more important development is the diversification of automation demand. For mechanical designers, control engineers and production planners it means that the next phase of growth in American robotics market is coming not because of one sector but the capability to adapt to many others.
By Jonathan Barrett – Editor for AMI’s future mobility and autonomous systems section, covering robotics, e-mobility, drone-vehicle convergence and transport mechanical systems for two decades.
