Automate 2026: Q&A with A3 President Jeff Burnstein

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Automate 2026 is nearly upon us. Over 50,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors are expected for North America’s largest robotics and automation show, hosted by the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). Automate 2026 begins on Monday, June 22 at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Before robotics and automation leaders from around the globe descend on Chicago, Robotics 24/7 had a chance to connect with Jeff Burnstein, President of A3.

Automate continues to expand

RB247: How many attendees and exhibitors are expected at Automate 2026?

JB: Attendance is at a record number at this point. As we're closing in on the show, we're already over 1,000 exhibitors, and the floor space that we're occupying is at least 20% ahead of what we had in Detroit last year. Everything is trending up. The growth of the show has been amazing. It became a standalone show in 2022 after being co-located with ProMat until 2019. It is now more than two and a half times larger than it was then.

RB247: How have these numbers grown over the last few Automate conferences?  

JB: Automate 2023 had over 30,000 people and over 750 exhibitors. Automate 2024 featured over 42,000 people and over 860 exhibitors. And Automate 2025 saw over 45,000 people and over 900 exhibitors. 

Jeff Burnstein, President, A3

RB247: What are you most excited about for Automate 2026, and what should attendees be most excited about?

JB: I think the difference between Automate and every other show out there is that Automate covers automation broadly. It's not just material handling, or machine tools, or packaging. This is a show where you're going to see solutions for every industry, and there will be the leaders of the companies there to talk about this. If you're only going to one show in automation this year or next year, this is the one where you're going to see these solutions for every industry, whether it's manufacturing, warehousing, aerospace, agriculture, construction. And all the industry experts that will be at Automate are going to be really great sources of information for people who want to automate.

Automate 2026 and the Humanoid Robot Forum

RB247: How did the Humanoid Robot Forum being co-located with the Automate conference come about? What should Automate attendees look for at this Humanoid Robot Forum that will be the same as or different from last year's event?

JB: One of the considerations is that there have been several humanoid events held that have been relatively small and haven’t really focused so much on getting humanoids in front of customers. They were more about the technology. With the Humanoid Robot Pavilion, sponsored by NVIDIA, at Automate, there’s a whole ecosystem of humanoids and enabling technologies on display. And the co-located Humanoid Robot Forum will take a deep dive, with industry leaders from major humanoid companies around the world. We expect hundreds of potential customers to attend the Forum sessions and thousands more to visit the show floor pavilion. It's going to be fantastic.

Technological innovations and educational sessions at Automate 2026

RB247: What technological innovations is A3 particularly excited about at the show?

JB: I'm really excited about how all these technologies fit together. Robots, vision, AI and motion, and this whole physical AI movement really excites me, especially with how it plays out in humanoids. Humanoids are a new form factor. What we do know, with certainty, is that a lot of people are interested in humanoids, and we're seeing a tremendous amount of investment in the humanoid space. We're seeing the biggest companies in the world invest in humanoids, and this Humanoid Robot Pavilion that NVIDIA is sponsoring at Automate is going to bring together leading humanoid companies from around the world. We're going to have companies that are from China, the U.S., and the EU. It's going to be something.

RB247: How are the training and educational sessions for Automate 2026 aligned with this technological innovation?

JB: We’ve added more speakers and more sessions this year than we’ve ever had at Automate. All of the technology and the workforce needed for that technology are so important. We have the Education Pavilion and the Automate Student Challenge competitions. What we’ve been recommending to the government is that the U.S. government, in particular, needs to start investing heavily in workforce training. There's already a shortage of almost 500,000 workers in manufacturing alone, and the projections are that that number could grow to potentially 1.9 million by 2033. So if we don't address the worker shortages, how are we going to restore all this manufacturing that we're talking about?

A3’s role in the development of a National Robotics Strategy

RB247: How are the ongoing conversations between A3 and its members going related to the ongoing efforts between the Association and the U.S. government around adopting a National Robotics Strategy? 

JB: Well, we're getting great feedback from the membership that they are supportive of what we're doing to try and get the U.S. to finally adopt a National Robotics Strategy. Our explanation in the U.S. is that we were the leaders. Robotics was created in the U.S., and we came to the government four decades ago and said you need to do something, or this is all going to be lost to Japan. Japan had a national strategy, and it had overtaken the U.S. in terms of robot production and adoption. The U.S. government didn't act. Now you fast forward to today, and China dwarfs the rest of the world in robotics. Not only in adoption, but in production. Why is that? They have a national strategy that they've been working for well over a decade. The U.S. government is now paying attention. The government wants to regain leadership in robotics, so they are very open to what we're saying now. Legislation has been introduced for the National Robotics Commission. We'll see if it passes. Other legislation is also being considered toward this goal of a National strategy. The administration is considering executive orders related to robotics. They’ve signed executive orders related to AI. So we see a lot of positive steps being taken, but it won't matter until these things actually happen. We're very optimistic that these things are going to happen and that the U.S. government is taking this seriously.

RB247: How will this topic be discussed at Automate 2026? 

JB: We’re very excited to announce that Bill Guidera, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services at the Department of Commerce, will attend Automate on Monday, June 22. Bill is expected to make remarks at the opening keynote that day and participate in a session on government-related activities in robotics.

Automate 2027 heads to Las Vegas

RB247: How did A3 decide to move Automate to Las Vegas in 2027?

JB: Well, the show is growing rapidly. Originally, we held the show every other year, but starting in 2022, because of COVID, we had to hold it back-to-back years in 2022 and 2023 in Detroit. And now you look at how much bigger it’s been than it was pre-COVID through Detroit. The reality is, we had to turn away over 100 companies in Detroit last year. And 2026 will be our largest show ever. So then the question was, no matter how big the show is in Chicago, the majority of people are coming from a 300-mile radius. What about all these industries on the West Coast? And how can we address those companies on the West Coast? We looked at other places too, like the Southeast. The thing was that we wanted to try and get another part of the country to broaden the reach of Automate. Las Vegas has supported other major shows, and we think they're going to support Automate. We'll know soon, because it's coming in a year. We'll start selling booth space at Automate this year.