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AI Beyond Chatbots: 3 Experts on Edge, Robotics, and Real Impact

Pete Bernard is the Executive Director of the EDGE AI FOUNDATION, where he works to advance the development and adoption of edge AI across industries. With a background spanning embedded systems, machine learning, and large-scale technology ecosystems, Bernard focuses on building collaborative communities that bring physical, generative, and agentic AI out of the cloud and into real-world environments. He is known for translating complex technical shifts into practical frameworks that enable reliable, scalable AI at the edge.

Pankaj Kedia is a Managing Partner at 2468 Ventures, where he invests in companies at the intersection of AI, robotics, autonomy, and applied technology. He brings a long-term perspective on AI’s evolution, emphasizing systems that outperform humans in safety-critical and high-impact domains. Kedia focuses on applied AI that delivers real ROI across healthcare, education, mobility, and industrial use cases, moving innovation from experimentation to lasting societal and economic value.

Hank Crawford is the Founder of Blue Collar Robotics, where he is rethinking how robotics can address labor shortages through human-in-the-loop systems. His work centers on remotely operated, task-specific robots that augment workers rather than replace them, starting with grocery fulfillment and expanding into physical industries. Crawford’s approach combines robotics, global labor access, and pragmatic automation to create scalable solutions that keep people involved in the future of work.

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🎧 Episode Highlights

[01:15] Why Edge AI is bigger than TinyML and how physical, generative, and agentic AI are converging
[04:36] Cameraless AI: using signals and radio waves to sense environments without cameras
[16:52] Why AI shouldn’t just match human performance but exceed it in safety-critical systems like self-driving and robotics
[27:47] Applied AI as the real ROI driver across healthcare, education, and mobility
[39:38] How human-in-the-loop robotics for grocery fulfillment provides global labor opportunities

🔑 Key Takeaways:

The most impactful AI isn’t happening in massive data centers, it’s happening where systems can sense, interpret, and act in real time. From cameraless perception to signal-based sensing, edge AI enables intelligence in environments where latency, privacy, and connectivity matter most.
AI must outperform humans in safety-critical systems to matter. Matching human performance isn’t enough when lives, health, or infrastructure are at stake. Whether in autonomous driving, healthcare triage, or robotics, the bar for AI is being meaningfully safer, more consistent, and more reliable than human decision-making.
The most scalable AI systems don’t replace people, they amplify them. Human-in-the-loop robotics and applied AI models solve labor shortages, unlock global talent, and improve productivity while preserving human judgment, accountability, and trust.