With better models, more effective benchmarks, and a framework for constant improvement, now is the time to focus AI on complex, innovative, and transformational tasks. Essentially, AI and models should focus on hard tech.
Hard Tech
Hard tech refers to businesses rooted in advanced engineering and scientific innovation, often involving the development of physical products or systems that address complex challenges. Beyond drones, robots, and AI-driven hardware, the following are prominent examples of hard tech opportunities across industries.
Breakthroughs and Opportunities
These sectors leverage breakthroughs in AI, materials science, manufacturing, and engineering to solve pressing global challenges, drive industrial transformation, and create long-term business value.
While this is merely a listing, the potential each application represents is an enormous opportunity, marking the beginning of a more comprehensive understanding of what AI is good for, how it can be positively impactful, and the opportunities it can create.
Transformation and Disruption
Recent rhetoric has focused too much on job loss, societal damage, and other unforeseen consequences. While all these are real, it is only one small side of the whole story. More comprehensively, AI represents enormous disruption and transformational opportunities.
Examples include:
• Advanced robotics (industrial, medical, agricultural, and consumer robots)
• Autonomous vehicles (self-driving cars, trucks, ships, and drones)
• AI-powered hardware for networking, security, and edge computing
• 3D printing and additive manufacturing (including 3D-printed rockets and buildings)
• Quantum computing and advanced semiconductors
• Clean energy technologies (solar panels, wind turbines, energy storage, hydrogen fuel cells)
• Carbon capture and emissions reduction systems (e.g., mobile carbon capture for trucks, ships)
• Advanced materials (nanomaterials, sustainable materials, composites)
• Biopharma and biotech devices (medical diagnostics, advanced prosthetics, lab automation)
• Modular and 3D-printed construction and infrastructure
• Industrial automation platforms (smart factories, Industry 4.0 solutions)
• Aerospace and spacetech (satellites, reusable rockets, electric aircraft)
• Water and waste management systems (smart sensors, filtration, recycling tech)
• Agtech (precision farming equipment, automated irrigation, drone crop monitoring)
• Humanoid and service robots (for hospitality, healthcare, and logistics)
• Edge AI devices (real-time analytics at the source, such as smart cameras and IoT sensors)
• Advanced medical devices (wearables, remote monitoring, surgical robots)
• Cyber-physical security hardware (AI-driven threat detection appliances)
• Smart manufacturing equipment (robotic arms, automated quality control)
• Eco-friendly hardware (energy-efficient servers, green data centers)
Unlike pure software ventures, hard tech companies develop tangible, science-driven products that address global challenges such as climate change, healthcare, and sustainable manufacturing, often requiring significant R&D investment and interdisciplinary expertise.
AI and Hard Tech
The convergence of AI with hard tech is accelerating innovation cycles, enabling breakthroughs in areas previously considered unattainable—such as autonomous vehicles, smart manufacturing, and next-generation medical devices—while creating high barriers to entry that favor the long-term growth and market leadership of first movers.
Artificial intelligence is not only automating routine tasks but also catalyzing the emergence of entirely new industries and professions. As AI systems become increasingly integral to sectors such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and the creative industries, demand is rising for roles including AI and machine learning specialists, data analysts, AI ethicists, human-machine teaming managers, and AI trainers. AI will generate new opportunities, perhaps on an unforeseen scale, for those focused on building, managing, and guiding AI systems, as well as integrating AI with hardware, technical, and domain expertise, and developing new products and services.
AI-driven hard tech is creating new business models and industries, such as personalized medicine, autonomous logistics, smart infrastructure, and agentic AI platforms that autonomously manage complex operations, reshaping the competitive landscape and unlocking new avenues for value creation. As a result, businesses and professionals who embrace interdisciplinary skills and continuous learning will thrive in the hard tech ecosystem.