Dave Stehlin

At Manifest 2026, Scott Luton spent time with Josh Gruenstein, Co-Founder and CEO of Tutor Intelligence, to talk about a future that’s no longer theoretical: AI-powered robot workers operating inside America’s warehouses and factories. And this isn’t a science experiment. It’s already happening.   From MIT to the Warehouse Floor Gruenstein and his team came out of MIT’s Computer Science and AI Lab with a bold idea: build AI-powered robot workers that can handle the manual labor people don’t want to do. “We build physical robots,” Gruenstein explained. “We build AI models that enable robots to perceive their environments, and then we deploy those robots into factories and warehouses across the United States to do manual labor that people don’t want to do.” Unlike traditional automation projects that require massive capital outlays, Tutor Intelligence operates on a robots-as-a-service model. Companies can engage a Tutor robot for roughly $14–$18 an hour, creating a flexible, scalable path to automation without multimillion-dollar implementation risk.   Automation Isn’t New. AI Is Changing the Playbook. When asked about dominant supply chain themes, Gruenstein pointed to a constant drumbeat: automation. But 2026 feels different. “Automation is obviously a constant theme,” he said. “What really seems different…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now. On Monday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of Digital Transformers, Kevin L. Jackson discusses how Enterprise Information Management Transforms with Mark Judson. On This Week in Business History, Scott Luton shares about 10 Cities with Business Ties You Didn’t Know! On Tuesday, we released an episode of TEKTOK with host, Karin Bursa. She was accompanied by Scott Luton and supply chain pioneer, Art Mesher. On Tuesday we also released an episode of TECHquila Sunrise with host Greg White and special guest Shannon Vaillancourt, CEO of Ratelinx. On Wednesday we released Supply Chain Today and Tomorrow hosted by Scott Luton and Greg White with special guest Mike Griswold from Gartner. On Thursday, we released a replay of the Supply Chain Buzz. In this episode, hosts Greg White and Scott Luton welcomed Jordon White from Crisp and Jerry Stephens from Outlier to discuss the current state of the food and retail supply chain. We ended the week on Friday with 2 episodes! We released another Dial P for Procurement episode! Hosts Kelly Barner and Scott Luton welcomed special…