Robots, already in hospitals, are ready to roll in other industries

MoneyWatch Robots, already in hospitals, are ready to roll in other industries By Katherine Moynihan February 27, 2026 / 5:39 PM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the nurse assistant stopped by a patient's room to pick up some lab samples while dropping off toiletries. Then, as the helper's pixilated blue eyes flashed a heart sign to indicate the task had been completed, it summoned an elevator and quietly rolled off to the hospital's supply room to carry on with its next mission. Meet Moxi, a robot that is helping medical staff at Cedars-Sinai and roughly two dozen other hospitals around the U.S. "I don't have to go take my 10,000 steps down into the belly of the hospital to go find things and get it for my patient," Melanie Barone, an associate director at Cedars-Sinai, told CBS News. "Robots are no longer so sci-fi," Barclays analyst Zornitsa Todorova said recently at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Moxi saves hospital staff time and helps them focus on patient care, according to Diligent Robotics, the Austin, Texas-based maker of Moxi. The company told CBS News there are Moxis at 25 hospitals nationwide. David Marshall, the chief nursing executive at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, said the 900-bed hospital started using Moxi two years ago to help with backend work, such as moving linens and retrieving medication and patient belongings. Today, the medical facility uses three of the robots. "We've seen positive, emotional responses that we see from patients, staff, visitors and children. … We had one patient that asked if Moxi could come back and tell her hello after her surgery." Casey Wilbert, vice president of Rochester Regional Health in Rochester, New York, was an early adopter of Moxi. The 528-bed hospital began using the robot in 2023 and today operates eight of the devices. "One of the great things about the robots is you're not paying overtime, …they don't take sick days." He told CBS News. ...