INTHEBLACK October 2026 - Magazine - Page 46
F E AT U R E
“One way to think about it is that robots are
the hands and feet, and AI is the brain, just like
a physical robot, eliminating the need to reprogram
for every unexpected event that is encountered.”
GUY IOPPOLO FCPA, IAAUTOMATE
investment,” Howard explains. “We are
seeing these robots turn up in lots of different
places, and businesses are trying them out
and seeing how they fit into a workflow. But
bear in mind what the robots are good at and
do not get sucked into the hype, especially
when making investment decisions.”
Australia’s National Robotics Strategy
is the architecture for the nation’s approach
to robotics. “It is an important north star, but
it still needs to be operationalised and that
is what CSIRO is doing,” says Howard.
When finance executives are thinking
through the role robots can play in a business,
a cited limitation is that they are not adept
at interacting with humans. Howard points
to Moravec’s paradox, which suggests the
things that are hard for a human to do are
easy for a robot to do, and vice versa.
“It is easy for a robot to do something
like a precise dance routine that would
take someone years to train for. But when
robots are asked to do simple tasks like
fold a T-shirt and interact with the world,
something most humans find easy, they
often fail. Humanoids cannot do too much
interaction at the moment. If we can get
humanoids with good hands, then we might
be talking,” he says.
More importantly, robotics investment
needs to move beyond use cases that
emphasise labour replacement.
“We need to progress from experimental
innovation budgets into mainstream capital
allocation and operational planning,” says
Jannat Maqbool FCPA, business development
manager at the Australian Urban Research
Infrastructure Network, University of
Melbourne. “This involves identifying
the highest-value automation opportunities.
Accounting and finance professionals should
be helping businesses move beyond hype
into disciplined investment, risk management
and value creation.”
Critically, robotics procurement is unlike
traditional equipment procurement.
46 INTHEBLACK October 2026
With robotics, procurement must combine
hardware, software, AI, cybersecurity, data
governance, maintenance, workforce training,
vendor management, insurance and safety
compliance. This means workforce planning
must be built into the investment case from
the beginning. A mindset where robotics is
seen as part of sustainable growth should be
the foundation of any change management
program around robotics’ introduction.
DAY-TO-DAY INTEGRATIONS
There are many entry points for businesses
that are interested in exploring robotics.
One such model is robotics-as-a-service:
instead of buying robots outright, businesses
pay a subscription or usage fee for access
to robotic capability, often bundled with
maintenance, software updates, monitoring
and support.
“This is especially useful for small
and medium enterprises that may not have
the capital or technical capability to own
and maintain robotics infrastructure,”
says Maqbool, who is also a member
of CPA Australia’s Digital Transformation
Centre of Excellence.
As with AI, it is essential to properly
manage data created by robots, which is
considered an intangible asset. “That data
can improve forecasting, maintenance,
safety and decision-making, but only if the
organisation has the right data governance,
analytics capability and cyber controls,”
she says.
Robotics may also introduce risks around
vendor dependency and system failure.
“We need to make sure audit trails, insurance
and accountability mechanisms are in place,”
Maqbool adds.
Integration costs that sit outside the
subscription also need to be identified.
Organisations should interrogate whether
the contract locks the business into
one platform, one data environment or one
supplier. “Robotics offers a new operating
