As we enter the next “roaring 20s,” retailers and CPG organizations will experience technological revolutions involving sophisticated AI tools like prescriptive analytics and innovation in mobile devices and robots that will lead to increased productivity, optimized shopping and employee experiences and greater customer satisfaction.

Interact Analysis, UK, released “The Collaborative Robot Market – 2019,” a report that indicates strong and sustained growth for the collaborative robot industry.

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR), Germany, released its annual World Robotics Report, which showed an annual global sales value of $16.5 billion in 2018.

FarmWise, San Francisco, raised $14.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Calibrate Ventures, Pasadena, Calif.

Shopify Inc., Canada, announced plans to acquire 6 River Systems, Inc., a Waltham, Mass.-based provider of collaborative warehouse fulfillment solutions.

Many of today’s industrial facilities are being built for both humans and robots, according to a report published by Cushman & Wakefield, Chicago.

The collaborative robotics (cobot) market will become increasingly mainstream over the next 10 years, according to “Industrial Collaborative Robots Market Tracker,” new analysis from ABI Research, New York.

Piab, Hingham, Mass., introduced piSOFTGRIP, a new soft gripping tool developed to grip sensitive and lightweight objects of odd geometries and/or an unusual surface.