I asked a robot to serve me snacks at Nvidia GTC 2026 – but I’m not ready to call it the future just yet
As AI technology continues to develop and evolve, one of the primary use cases is expected to be robotics as humans seek additional assistance at work and in personal life.
Nvidia has been one of the biggest proponents of next-generation robotics, with CEO Jensen Huang explaining at its GTC 2026 event how every major company is working with Nvidia in one way or another.
But what is it actually like to interact with these robots? I had the chance to see the future up close and personal at Nvidia GTC 2026 – here’s how I fared…
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Practice with the humanoid
Retail and customer service has been one of the most frequently discussed use cases for the future of robotics, and on Nvidia’s booth at GTC 2026 was a demo of Humanoid showing exactly that.
The company’s (slightly terrifying-looking) robots, currently available in wheeled and pedal-powered editions, have become one of the industry’s pioneers, with clients including Siemens and Schaeffler.
We were faced with two of the wheeled models, which we saw in action swapping different products by picking up separate boxes, but their size means it would require quite a significant amount of space for them to work effectively.
We were told to speak into a microphone to prepare our order, choosing from a handful of products. The robot waiter tells us that it has received the order (a bottle of water and a packet of dried mangoes), and asks us to confirm, still via the microphone.
We were then asked to stand in front of the robot and hold out our hand so it knew where to place the item. We had chosen items from two different boxes, so one robot delivered the water and the other the dried mango.
Overall, the order was largely successful – in fact, a little too successful, as the second robot offered us an extra serving of dried mango (winner!). The first robot seemed to have difficulty picking up the water bottle, but once it picked it up, it was successfully delivered.
From start to finish, the entire process took about 45 seconds – that’s not too bad, but certainly slower than what a human worker would have taken. The technology is clearly in its early stages, but if this first demo is anything to go by, we could soon start seeing humanoid robots in a store near you sooner than expected.
