Over the past year, I’ve noticed an overwhelming theme emerge when Asian tech leaders look at what comes next for artificial intelligence. There has been a marked desire to move beyond chatbots, software and into the physical realm.

We’ll start to see much more AI-enabled hardware and robotics — and it will be coming from Asia.

The experience I've had tuning in to many executive chats and tech conferences could best be summed by Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang’s proclamation in Taipei in June. "The next wave of AI is physical AI,” he said. "The era of robotics has arrived.”