Manu Menon

Insights

AI is leaving the screen. Industry is next.

Humanoids, software-defined vehicles, and the industries being rebuilt around them. Written for people who have to make the call.

New to the terms? Start with the glossary →

Black-and-white portrait of Manu Menon in a Nehru jacket

The flagship series · Physical AI

AI is getting a body.

What physical AI means for companies that build physical things.

Get the series first
  1. 01Why physical AI is the next platform shiftComing soon
  2. 02The humanoid question every industrial company will faceComing soon
  3. 03What the software-defined vehicle can teach roboticsComing soon
  4. 04Who captures the value in a humanoid robotComing soon
Featured essay · Software-defined vehicles · 11 min From spaltmaß to software. Why cars still aren't smart, what decoupling hardware from software changes, and why the SDV will be won through coopetition, not winner-takes-all. Read the essay → "The joke in the auto industry is that you can discern a company's organisational structure by examining its vehicle user interface." February 2024

Essays

Newest first
Technology · Software-defined vehicles
October 2026 The car is becoming a supercomputer on wheelsFrom a hundred control units to a few central brains. Who will own the brain? Read → Strategy · Global capability centres · #BuildInBharat
October 2026 GCC 4.0: from cost centre to command centreIndia's capability centres moved from cost to capability. Next comes accountability, and the constraint is trust. Read → Technology · Physical AI · #BuildInBharat
June 2026 Squeeze machines tooIndia's house-help boom solves the easy problem. Where are the robots, and the patient capital behind them? Read → Leadership · Economy
May 2026 Civilisations decline when they stop buildingAI, asset prices, ageing and an addiction to immediacy are converging. How do we keep progress broad-based? Read → Strategy · Business models
May 2026 Studying isn't like eating an ice creamA strange line from a maths teacher, decades later: why some ideas scale effortlessly and others fight for every inch. Read → Strategy · AI
March 2026 In AI, defaults winWhile the world debates benchmarks, the real race may be about ecosystems, distribution and who owns the default layer. Read → Technology · AI agents
March 2026 The internet's next users won't be humanA social network for AI agents is a curiosity today, and maybe a preview of an internet built for machines. Read → Technology · Voice AI · #BuildInBharat
February 2026 The next billion AI users will speakMost AI is built for typing in English. India's opportunity may be voice-first, deeply localised AI for how people actually communicate. Read → Strategy · AI adoption · #BuildInBharat
February 2026 Diffusion matters more than modelsFrontier AI is reaching citizens before governments catch up. Ask less about models, more about "so what?" Read → Leadership · Future of work · #BuildInBharat
February 2026 The plumber, the developer and the dignity of labourTwo people, two salaries, two frustrations. What AI means for skilled trades, and why dignity has to follow value. Read → Strategy · Deep tech · #BuildInBharat
February 2026 Institutions produce convictionNotes on India's first institute-backed deep-tech fund: patient capital and the courage to absorb failure. Read → Strategy · Execution
January 2026 Ajith, the bricoleurStuck on a jungle road before sunrise, with no signal. What a farm worker, a tractor and some rope taught me about strategy. Read → Strategy · Future of work · #BuildInBharat
November 2025 The world's test bed for AI business modelsFree frontier AI in the hands of the world's largest workforce. Why the global AI playbook is being written in India. Read → Technology · Sovereign AI · #BuildInBharat
2025 Compute is the new railwayRailways built the industrial age. Compute rails will build the AI economy. Is India laying them? Read → Leadership · Skills
2025 Skills keep the door openDegrees open doors. Skills keep them open. A contrarian truth from a decade across 12 countries. Read → Technology · Software-defined vehicles
February 2024 Transforming mobility: from spaltmaß to softwareThe road from mechanical perfection to software-defined vehicles, and who wins it. Read → Technology · Mobility
May 2023 Transforming mobility: when the rubber hits the roadThe tyre is the only part of a vehicle that touches the ground. Why connected tyres matter. Read →
Portrait of Manu Menon in a light-blue Nehru jacket, thinking, against a teal background

Machines That Move. A monthly letter.

One essay a month on physical AI, humanoids and software-defined vehicles.

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