[Insight & Opinion] Game Changer in the Home Appliance Market: AI Humanoid Robots

Acceleration of AI Humanoid Robot Development
Mass Adoption in Korea Expected Before 2030
Preparing for Coexistence in the Near Future

Everyone agrees that AI will be a game changer. This is because we have experienced its power through ChatGPT. However, the real AI game changer we will face will be something with a concrete form, like a refrigerator or washing machine. AI humanoid robots are next in line.

The history of humanoid robot development has surpassed 30 years, but compared to industrial robots, the growth of the humanoid robot market has been sluggish. The new turning point in the robot market was created by Tesla, led by Elon Musk, with the announcement of Tesla Bot, Optimus, in 2021. The humanoid robot Optimus, standing 173 cm tall and weighing 73 kg, was announced to be mass-produced within a few years at a price range of 20 to 30 million won. China’s humanoid robot industry is also rapidly growing. The World Robot Conference in August 2024 and the CES exhibition in January 2025 clearly demonstrate this.

The acceleration of the humanoid robot market is thanks to AI technology. It has become possible to mass-produce AI artificial humans that look remarkably like humans and possess senses, intelligence, and emotions surpassing humans, enabling them to judge and act like humans. It may soon be possible to produce them at one-tenth of the 20 to 30 million won price planned by Tesla.

There are countless things you can do if you purchase an AI humanoid robot for your home. You would be able to buy an artificial human product that performs almost every imaginable task: cleaner, chef, teacher educating children, caregiver looking after the elderly, doctor protecting family health, trainer managing exercise and fitness, and more. There is no reason to keep them only at home. You could bring them to work to perform tasks on your behalf. How many people could resist buying such AI artificial humans for just a few million won? In that sense, AI humanoid robots will undoubtedly be game changers in the home appliance market. They will be game changers that influence almost every market related to human labor beyond the home appliance market. It is only a matter of time.

“The start of the change we expected is always slower than we anticipated, but once the change begins, its spread is much faster than expected.” This is something the author has heard countless times over the past 30 years working in digital and future work. The same seems to apply to AI artificial humans.

We asked AI when one million and ten million AI humanoid robots would be distributed in Korea. AI answered around 2035 and 2050. Although AI is smart, the author is confident that AI is wrong about this. We can see this from the history of smartphones. After the first smartphone, the iPhone, was released in 2007, smartphones spread rapidly. In Korea, the number of smartphone users exceeded one million in August 2010, and just over a year later, in September 2011, it surpassed ten million.

A phenomenon similar to the spread of smartphones is expected to occur with humanoid robots. Based on current trends, the time when one million AI humanoid robots are distributed domestically is expected to be before 2030. This means that around 2030, ten million AI artificial humans will be distributed in Korea. If so, a megaton-level opportunity will come to home appliance companies and related industries, and a huge change is expected for the consumers as well. How prepared are we? The moment you think it is too late is the fastest time. It is time to seriously prepare for the era of AI humanoid robots, the era when AI artificial humans coexist with us humans.

Kim Hyun-gon, Invited Professor at Chungnam National University Graduate School of Public Policy · Former Director of the National Assembly Future Institute