A supermarket in Germany just installed a fully autonomous kitchen that can cook and plate 120 meals an hour. This isn't a lab experiment, it's a live example of physical AI solving a very real business problem.
For operators, this is a clear blueprint for how to automate labor-intensive work and even create new revenue streams. It answers the question of what happens when AI moves from software into physical operations.
Topics of the day:
The AI kitchen cooking 120 meals an hour
AI agents that teach themselves new skills
ChatGPT introduces group chats for teams
China's humanoid robots clock in for factory work
The Shortlist: LinkedIn adds AI-powered search for premium users, Oracle launches a plain-English database assistant, Waymo robotaxis move onto freeways, and a surgeon completes the first transatlantic robot-assisted operation.
AI powers fully autonomous in-store kitchen
What’s happening: A German supermarket is now home to the world's first in-store fully autonomous kitchen, preparing and plating up to 120 restaurant-quality meals per hour without any human staff.
In practice:
This offers a clear blueprint for automating labor-intensive tasks in food service, tackling staffing shortages and ensuring consistent quality around the clock.
For retail operators, it introduces a new revenue stream by turning floor space into a high-efficiency food service without the complexity of a traditional kitchen.
The system’s AI uses predictive ordering to cook on demand, which cuts down food waste compared to large-batch meal production.
Bottom line: This isn’t a concept in a lab. It’s a live example of how physical AI & robotics automation is creating new business models and solving operational headaches in traditional industries today.
AI Agents are now teaching themselves
What’s happening: Researchers just published a new research paper on AgentEvolver, a system where AI agents teach themselves new skills. The agents create their own tasks, evaluate their performance, and rewrite their instructions to get smarter over time, no human intervention needed.
In practice:
This could drastically cut engineering costs by deploying agents that adapt to new software or process changes without requiring manual updates.
Imagine a customer support bot that not only answers questions but identifies new problems and teaches itself the best resolution, creating self-optimizing workflows.
For marketing teams, an agent could be tasked with finding market trends and continuously evolve its own data-gathering methods as new platforms emerge.
Bottom line: This signals a shift from task automation to truly autonomous systems that manage and improve themselves. For operators, this means spending less time fine-tuning AI and more time defining the strategic goals you want them to achieve.
ChatGPT becomes a team player
What's happening: OpenAI is rolling out group chats in ChatGPT, turning the solo AI tool into a shared workspace where multiple people can collaborate with the model in a single conversation.
In practice:
Use it to have ChatGPT instantly summarize meetings and brainstorms where everyone contributes ideas in one place.
Drop in customer feedback and have sales and marketing teams collaborate on messaging with the AI acting as a moderator.
It's a simple way to manage small projects by inviting team members and an AI assistant to track tasks and create outlines.
Bottom line: Think of it as a shared brain for your team that cuts down on back-and-forth emails.
China's humanoid robot push accelerates
What’s happening: China’s humanoid robots are officially clocking in for work, with robotics firm UBTech securing over $112M in orders to place its bots in factories.
In practice:
This marks a major step toward automating repetitive factory tasks like assembly and quality control that still require a human-like form factor.
Other startups are showing off AI that enables robots to perform complex household chores autonomously, like in this viral footage.
For you, this is a prompt to start auditing which physical workflows in your business could be candidates for robotic automation down the line.
Bottom line: As mentioned in earlier issues, humanoid robots are moving from R&D labs to real-world balance sheets.
The Shortlist
LinkedIn added an AI-powered search for premium users, letting them use natural language queries to find professionals more easily.
Oracle introduced Ask Oracle, a new chatbot that lets business users query complex databases using plain English and get back charts and explanations.
Waymo announced its robotaxis will now operate on freeways in San Francisco, LA, and Phoenix, enabling quicker and more efficient routes for passengers.
A surgeon performed the world's first transatlantic, robot-assisted surgery, operating on a patient in Scotland from Florida with only a 120ms delay.
This newsletter is where I (Kwadwo) share products, articles, and links that I find useful and interesting, mostly around AI. I focus on tools and solutions that bring real value to people in everyday jobs, not just tech insiders.
Please share any feedback you have either in an answer or through the poll below 🙏🏽
