The latest consolidated statistics available in 2026 show, above all, that service robotics is moving beyond experimentation and finding economically viable applications in logistics, healthcare, cleaning, agriculture and other sectors.

This market can be expected to continue growing strongly throughout 2026 and the years ahead.

The global service robotics market continues to gain momentum

According to the World Robotics 2025 – Service Robots report from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), published at the end of 2025, more than 199,000 professional service robots were sold worldwide in 2024, representing a 9% increase in one year.

This figure provides the latest major consolidated snapshot of the market available in 2026.

But behind those 199,000 units are very different market dynamics.

Professional cleaning grew by 34%. Medical robots recorded growth of 91%. Logistics exceeded 100,000 units sold, while other categories, such as hospitality robots, declined.

For industrial companies, these figures are particularly useful for identifying the sectors in which robotics is beginning to achieve genuine economic maturity.

Nearly 200,000 professional robots sold worldwide

The IFR recorded more than 199,000 professional service robots sold in 2024, up 9%.

However, this figure must be interpreted carefully.

Unlike statistics covering industrial robots, the service robotics study does not represent a comprehensive census of every machine sold worldwide.

IFR identifies 944 service robot manufacturers globally. Data in the 2025 edition is based on information collected from a sample of 293 manufacturers.

The organization also points out that the composition of this sample may change from one year to another.

The 199,000 units therefore serve primarily as a powerful indicator of market trends.

And those trends reveal accelerating demand across several very practical applications.

Cleaning: robot sales jump 34%

This is one of the most significant increases recorded by the IFR.

More than 25,000 professional cleaning robots were sold in 2024.

In just one year, sales increased by 34%.

Floor cleaning accounts for the majority of these applications.

Shopping malls, airports, hospitals, warehouses, factories, railway stations and large retail stores are particularly well suited to automation.

The areas involved are large, the tasks are repetitive, and routes are often structured enough for robots to operate for several hours with limited human intervention.

For companies, the economics are also relatively easy to measure.

A cleaning robot can operate for several hours, sometimes outside normal business hours, and perform repetitive tasks while human workers are reassigned to more complex activities.

This 34% increase illustrates a fundamental trend in robotics today: the fastest-growing robots are not necessarily the most spectacular ones.

Economic value is often found in automating simple, repetitive and measurable tasks.

The fastest-growing robots are not
necessarily the most spectacular ones,
but those with the clearest ROI.

Healthcare: 91% growth

The most impressive figure, however, comes from medical robotics.

According to the IFR, approximately 16,700 medical robots were sold in 2024, representing an increase of 91%.

Volumes remain lower than in logistics, but the momentum is remarkable.

The category includes applications related to surgery, laboratories, rehabilitation and various medical assistance systems.

It also has an important characteristic: the economic value of a medical robot can be significantly higher than that of a relatively simple service robot.

The number of units sold alone is therefore not enough to measure the economic importance of this market.

This growth mainly illustrates the widening scope of robotics applications.

After automotive manufacturing and traditional industry, robots are increasingly entering environments where precision, repeatability and assistance for professionals are critical.

Logistics: more than 100,000 robots sold

In terms of volume, however, logistics remains the heavyweight of the service robotics market.

Approximately 102,900 robots dedicated to transportation and logistics were sold in 2024, an increase of 14%.

This category alone therefore accounts for more than half of all professional service robots recorded by the IFR.

A significant proportion of this growth is linked to the development of AMRs – Autonomous Mobile Robots.

These autonomous mobile robots transport goods, components, bins or pallets inside warehouses, logistics centers and industrial facilities.

They address a very practical problem: a considerable amount of industrial working time is still spent moving goods from point A to point B.

Automating these movements can reduce non-value-added tasks while potentially increasing the availability of human operators.

New generations of AMRs also benefit from advances in sensors, machine vision, mapping and navigation software.

As a result, they can operate in environments that are considerably less rigid than those required by previous generations of AGVs.

Robot-as-a-Service lowers the investment barrier

The growth of service robotics is not driven solely by improvements in robot performance.

The business model is also changing.

According to the IFR, the fleet of professional robots operated under a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model increased by 31% in 2024, exceeding 24,500 units.

In logistics, growth reached as much as 42%.

The principle is similar to SaaS in the software industry.

Instead of purchasing a robot outright and committing significant capital, a company can pay for its use through a subscription or service contract.

Depending on the provider, maintenance, software updates and various additional services may be included.

For industrial decision-makers, this development is far from insignificant.

It can potentially transform part of a robotics investment into an operating expense, while reducing the risk associated with an initial deployment.

The question then becomes less about: “How much does this robot cost?” and more about: “How much does automating this task cost me every month, and what productivity gain can I expect in return?”

Agriculture: nearly 19,500 robots

Agricultural robotics also represents a significant market.

Nearly 19,500 agricultural robots were sold in 2024, although the segment declined by 6%.

Applications include automated milking systems and various mechanized agricultural operations.

Over the medium term, several factors could nevertheless support this market: labor shortages, an aging agricultural workforce, the need to improve productivity, and advances in machine vision and artificial intelligence.

Agriculture is precisely one of the environments where advances in AI and vision technologies could unlock new applications, because robots must operate in conditions that are far less predictable than an industrial production line.

Hospitality and customer service: a market down 11%

Not every segment is growing.

More than 42,000 robots designed for hospitality and customer-facing services were sold in 2024, but sales declined by 11%.

This category includes various information, guidance, telepresence and service robots.

The decline offers an interesting lesson.

Just because a task can technically be automated does not necessarily mean that doing so provides sufficient economic value.

The sectors currently recording the strongest growth are generally those where the return on investment can be identified relatively easily: moving goods, cleaning surfaces, automating industrial operations or assisting healthcare professionals.

944 manufacturers: a market that remains highly fragmented

The IFR now identifies 944 service robot manufacturers worldwide.

One important characteristic is that approximately 80% are SMEs with fewer than 500 employees.

The sector therefore remains extremely fragmented.

Alongside large industrial groups are numerous specialists developing machines for highly specific applications: cleaning, inspection, agriculture, security, healthcare, logistics and maintenance.

This fragmentation encourages innovation but could also lead to gradual market consolidation.

As volumes increase, the requirements for financing, industrialization, international maintenance capabilities and distribution networks become increasingly important.

With more than 4.6 million industrial robots already in operation, automation has become a global production infrastructure.

Industrial robotics remains on a completely different scale

To understand the overall scale of the phenomenon, service robotics must be compared with traditional industrial robotics.

According to World Robotics 2025, 542,000 new industrial robots were installed in factories in 2024.

Annual installations have now exceeded 500,000 units for four consecutive years.

More importantly, the global operational stock has reached approximately 4.66 million industrial robots.

Asia accounted for 74% of new global installations, compared with 16% for Europe and 9% for the Americas.

China alone accounted for approximately 295,000 new installations, representing more than half of the global market.

Over the past decade, the annual number of industrial robots installed worldwide has more than doubled.

More than 700,000 industrial robots per year expected by 2028

And the trend is expected to continue.

The IFR forecast approximately 575,000 new industrial robot installations in 2025, representing growth of 6%.

By 2028, worldwide installations are expected to exceed 700,000 industrial robots per year.

This trajectory puts the 199,000 professional service robots into a much broader context.

Manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and services are gradually converging toward higher levels of automation.

In 2026, artificial intelligence becomes the next accelerator

Since the collection of the 2024 statistics, another trend has accelerated: the integration of artificial intelligence into robotic systems.

The implications are considerable.

For several decades, robots have excelled in extremely structured environments: the same parts, the same trajectories and the same operations.

Advances in AI, machine vision and models that allow machines to interpret their environment could gradually expand the number of tasks that can be automated.

This is one of the reasons behind the current interest in intelligent AMRs, robots capable of manipulating variable objects and, over the longer term, humanoid robots.

Robot density is becoming a strategic industrial indicator

Competition is also taking place between economies.

The latest data published by the IFR in 2026 indicates that Western Europe has reached a density of approximately 267 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees.

North America stands at around 204 robots per 10,000 employees.

Robot density is gradually becoming an indicator of industrial competitiveness.

In economies facing demographic aging and difficulties finding workers for certain occupations, robotics can help increase productivity without necessarily requiring a proportional increase in workforce size.

Key figures to remember

Latest global data paints a picture of a market undergoing rapid transformation:

• 199,000+ professional service robots sold: +9%
• 102,900 transportation and logistics robots: +14%
• 25,000+ professional cleaning robots: +34%
• 16,700 medical robots: +91%
• 19,500 agricultural robots: -6%
• 42,000+ hospitality and customer service robots: -11%
• 24,500+ robots operated under RaaS models: +31%
• 944 service robot manufacturers identified worldwide
• 80% of manufacturers are SMEs
• 542,000 industrial robots installed in 2024
• 4.66 million industrial robots operating worldwide
• 700,000+ annual industrial robot installations expected by 2028

The real question: where is the ROI?

The 34% increase in cleaning robotics and 91% growth in medical robotics are impressive.

But they reveal something even more important.

Service robotics is beginning to find its markets.

We are no longer dealing only with technological demonstrations. In logistics, cleaning, healthcare and certain industrial applications, companies can now build genuine business models around robotics.

The development of Robot-as-a-Service is likely to accelerate this transition further by lowering the financial barrier to entry.

For an industrial executive in 2026, the question is therefore probably no longer whether robots will transform the sector.

The question has become much more practical:

Which task can we automate today, at what cost, and with what return on investment?

With nearly 200,000 professional service robots sold, more than 4.6 million industrial robots already operating worldwide, and global installations expected to continue rising, robotics is gradually entering a new phase.

After the race for technology comes the race for ROI, in a market that continues to grow.

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