The former head of Alphabet Inc.’s Google’s robotics group has come up with an eye-popping product of his own.
On Thursday, Formant introduced F3, what it claims is the world’s first AI-native robotics management platform powered by Generative AI and agentic reasoning.
Formant’s solution combines three key elements into one platform: the so-called “brain” (advanced AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini); “body” (robots and machines that sense, adapt, and execute tasks autonomously); and “context” (seamless integration with enterprise systems like Google Drive, Atlassian Corp.’s Jira, and others).
“Something’s wrong here,” Formant CEO Jeff Linnell, who once led Google’s robotics group, said in an interview. “AI is supposed to make work easier. But while the robots have evolved, the management layer is stuck in the past. The real bottleneck isn’t the machines — it’s the lack of intuitive, purpose-built software to run them. With F3 it’s not just about managing robots anymore. It’s about orchestrating intelligence.”
F3, which is attempting to transform how robots are managed to scale operations across the enterprise, is the first step in what Linnell calls a broader vision for physical AI. McKinsey projects physical AI space will reach $157 billion by 2030. Gartner predicts that by 2027 enterprises will spend more on orchestration platforms than on the robots themselves.
To date, the San Francisco-based startup has greatly aided robotics initiatives for Google, SoftBank, BP, Deere & Co., Shell, and Westinghouse Electric Corp.
For now, however, most solutions focus narrowly on connecting robots to AI models while ignoring business context such as ERPs, data warehouses, and ticketing systems.
AI adoption is accelerating across the enterprise — 72% of organizations now use AI, and 71% deploy generative AI in at least one business function, according to McKinsey. But while robots are getting smarter, the software used to manage them hasn’t kept up, Linnell says.
“The a-ha moment was three months ago, with multi-step reasoning tasks,” he said. “The next frontier here is the physical world. What does this mean at a restaurant, an airport, or a municipality? People are just waking up this next frontier of physical. The last mile is command and control of machines.”
Linnell sees the platform as “getting robotics to scale” via agents with less human oversight for use in energy, inspection, high-volume manufacturing, facilities management, and delivery — “Anything that robots are involved in,” he added.
“We’re entering an era where machines don’t just execute commands — they collaborate,” Linnell said. “Where every machine action improves the entire system. Where AI becomes a trusted partner, not just a tool. The revolution isn’t coming. It’s here.”
“I feel like Tony Stark every day,” he said.
