DATAmundi CEO Warns of Cultural Data Gap in Robotics
Véronique Özkaya warns that humanoid robotics face a critical data gap due to a lack of culturally specific behavioral training data.
CEO of DATAmundi.ai Véronique Özkaya warns that physical AI and humanoid robotics face a critical data gap caused by a lack of culturally specific behavioral training data. While global venture funding for the sector reached $47.4 billion in the first half of 2026, Özkaya argues that training models primarily on data from a single region risks creating regional tools rather than general-purpose robots.
Özkaya notes that variations in social norms, home layouts, and appliance types across different countries make the home the least standardized environment for deployment. This assessment is shared by Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson, who also characterized the home as the least standardized environment for robots. To achieve global scalability, Özkaya advises AI labs to prioritize culturally representative data and build local collection networks rather than relying on blind data scaling.
Industry activity continues to expand with the deployment of humanoids at BMW, Amazon, and Hyundai. Companies such as Figure AI, which reports a $39 billion valuation, and Agility Robotics, whose Digit humanoid has accumulated over 65,000 operational hours, currently lead the sector in valuation and operational experience.
