Milk Road AI Why Your First Humanoid Robot Won’t Be at Home... It’ll Be at Work
Feb 23, 2026
Jan Liphardt, founder and CEO of OpenMind, builds an open-source AI-native robot OS for humanoid deployments. He discusses why humanoids will appear first in workplaces, how they handle triage, intake, and customer-facing roles, and real-world deployments like conference guides and hospital intake. He also covers hardware partnerships, charging infrastructure, and regulatory and governance trade-offs.
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Humanoid Deployment Is A Decade Long Process
- Humanoid rollouts will be vertical-by-vertical and country-by-country and typically take roughly a decade to mature.
- Jan compares the timeline to Waymo's ~12-year path from prototype to practical service as a model for humanoid adoption.
Use Humanoids Where Human Shape Matters
- Use humanoids only where human-shaped compatibility matters, like doors, chairs, and stairs, not for high-volume single tasks.
- Jan argues purpose-built robots beat humanoids for repetitive factory tasks; humanoids excel as broadly capable assistants in human-designed spaces.
Front-Line Intake Jobs Are Most At Risk
- The first human-facing role to be replaced will be front-line intake/triage at places like casinos, hospitals, dealerships and stores.
- Humanoids will assess customers, collect IDs, and route them into backend workflows to prioritize human attention.