I asked a robot to serve me snacks at Nvidia GTC 2026 - but I’m not ready to call it the future just yet
I go hands-on with some of the smartest robots at GTC 2026
· TechRadarFeatures By Mike Moore published 21 March 2026
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As AI technology continues to develop and evolve, one of the key use cases is set to be robotics, as humans employ some extra assistance across work and home lives.
Nvidia has been one of the biggest proponents of next-gen robotics, with CEO Jensen Huang outlining at its GTC 2026 event how every major company is working with Nvidia in some way.
But what is it actually like to engage with these robots? I got the chance to see the future up close and personal at Nvidia GTC 2026 - here’s how I got on…
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Hands-on with the Humanoid
Retail and customer service has been one of the most commonly-mooted use cases for the future of robotics, and on Nvidia’s stand at GTC 2026 was a demo from Humanoid showing just that.
The company’s (slightly terrifying-looking) robots, currently available in wheeled and bidpedal editions have become one of the pace-setters in the industry, with customers already including the likes of Siemens and Schaeffler.
We were confronted with two of the wheeled models, which we saw in action swapping out different products by picking up separate boxes, but their size means you would need a fairly sizeable space for them to operate effectively.
We were told to speak into a microphone to pick our order, choosing from a handful of products. The robot server told us it had received the order (a bottle of water and a packet of dried mango fruit), and asked us to confirm, again via the microphone.
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