- Robosculptor is debuting its AI-powered massage robot in the U.S.
- The mechanical masseur uses real-time body mapping to provide consistent treatment
- For everyday clients, Robosculptor promises therapeutic massages aimed at those who value privacy and efficiency
Booking a massage might not need the soft music and small talk if you’d prefer lying down in front of a robot with a silicone-tipped arm and AI brain instead. That’s the promise of Robosculptor and its AI-powered massage system.
The mechanical masseur is designed not to mimic a human therapist, but to use AI analysis embedded into the machine to provide personalized treatment that is the same every time you hop on the table.
Robosculptor has just begun rolling out in the U.S., and the company hopes to get people comfortable with the idea of a robot doing their massage. After all, massage is one of the most personal, touch-based services around. Skilled practitioners use training, experience, and feedback from clients to provide care. Robosculptor isn’t trying to pass as human in its muscle manipulation – the whole pitch is the opposite. The idea is that an AI won’t be tired, have an off day, or forget something about treating your body.
Robosculptor scans your body with cameras, builds a real-time 3D map, and then the AI guides the arm to execute specified treatments, which have names like “Inner Peace” and “Vital Flow Express.” It’s a massage-as-output-optimized-protocol. And for some people, that might be exactly what they want.
The company is probably right to focus on making people feel okay about the experience. It’s a lot more intense than a massage chair’s vibrations, and people inherently trust a trained human to pay attention to little cues about your comfort, or discomfort, that a machine lacks the empathy and sentience to spot.
That’s partly why Robosculptor is targeting fitness centers and high-end spas, places where consistent performance across many customers is key to the business. You’re less likely to encounter one in a boutique massage studio. For people with social anxiety, or who don’t like to be touched by other people, the idea of a massage without a person in the room could be the difference between booking an appointment and not.
It could also be more affordable since the owner can use the Robosculptor far more frequently than a human masseur can complete a session. The company says the machine can do up to 240 sessions per month, triple the average for a human practitioner.
Massage AI
Massage therapists might not be thrilled, understandably. Robosculptor does claim the device is not a replacement for human experts, and that it can handle only the more basic, repeatable kinds of massage. But, it’s easy to imagine that, in chasing efficiency and margins, some operators might decide that the robot is “good enough” for most clients and scale back human staff. That would be a loss not just for therapists, but for clients who value their relationship with their massage therapist.
These theoretical issues need to be addressed as Robosculptor isn’t alone as a robotic massage provider. Massage Robotics debuted its dual robot arms more than three years ago, and the hardware and AI software have only improved since then. AI will learn from a wider range of body types, protocols, and outcomes. The robot arm you meet today might be a curiosity. The one in five years might be indistinguishable from the best therapist you ever had.
So while your massage next week might not come with a settings menu yet, it could happen sooner than you’d imagine. And you might not hate it. You could walk into a fitness center, book a 25-minute lymphatic flush, and get the exact same experience every week thereafter. You might even relax more, knowing no one’s judging your compression socks or weird tan lines.
Or maybe you’ll still want a person to do it and be willing to pay for it. For many people, though, Robosculptor could be their new favorite spa treatment, as long as that silicone is kept warm.
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erichs211@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
