Walking, Talking, Engaging AI in Higher Ed
Ray Schroeder
June 25, 2025
A front-row seat to the maturing of AI in higher education.
We are most accustomed to writing prompts and challenging artificial intelligence to give us answers, insights, sources, video clips and creativity. Emerging now is the walking, talking AI that engages us on our level.
We have front-row seats to the maturing of AI in higher education. There has been audio for a while, but now we are preparing for embodied AI. The race is on among multiple competitors to give AI a humanoid body that enables a wide variety of teaching capabilities as well as unique opportunities to advance research and engage the public. Images and early specifications of an assortment of humanoid robots under development can be viewed in this April 8 report on the Robozaps site.
Pricing and delivery dates vary, but in general the cost of an autonomous robot may be as low as a few thousand dollars or as high as $50,000 and even hundreds of thousands of dollars for specialized research models. The earliest mass-produced embodied AI may begin coming out in the fourth quarter of this year, followed by many more models in 2026. Earlier this year, Dean Fankhouser wrote in Robozaps, “Humanoid robots in education are transforming the learning experience by acting as teaching assistants, engaging students, and providing personalized learning support.”
