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Good to have you back for this month’s In the Loop, where we pull together what’s been happening across the sector and within the K360 community. 💫
From a packed week in Chicago at Automate 2026 to new conversations shaping where automation talent is heading, there has been plenty happening across the market. Alongside that, we have been digging into what we are seeing on the ground across robotics, advanced manufacturing and MedTech, plus sharing a few updates from the K360 team itself.
Inside this edition you will find a mix of event highlights, market insight pieces, live roles and a quick look at what we have been up to as a team, all pulled from what we are seeing in the market.
We hope you enjoy!
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What a week in Chicago. Automate 2026 was the largest edition yet, with McCormick Place hosting over 1,000 exhibitors and a reported 50,000+ attendees across four days, making it the busiest show on record. From humanoid robots to AI driven controls and AMR fleets moving at scale, there was a huge amount to take in, and just as much value in the conversations as the tech itself. It was brilliant to catch up with familiar faces, meet plenty of new ones, and spend some proper time talking shop on the show floor.
Take a look at what we saw here.
Walking the floor also got us thinking. With all that innovation on display, who is actually going to build, run and maintain it? We dig into that properly below.
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To mark the end of Q1, we also recognised the K360 wins from the quarter. Here’s what we got up to.
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To round off Q1, the team got together for a meal at our favourite local Indian restaurant. It was a nice chance to step away from the day-to-day, catch up properly, and reflect on the quarter.
It’s been a busy few months with plenty going on, and it felt good to take a moment to acknowledge the work that’s gone into it. A straightforward, well-earned evening together.
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To celebrate our High Flyers for last quarter, the team headed to Sapporo Teppanyaki in Manchester for lunch together. Jordan Allen, Amelia Dallas, and Henry Houghton Hodson were recognised for going above and beyond their targets, alongside Phil and Lisa Hodson.
It was a great afternoon with good food, plenty of laughs, and a chance to properly celebrate some brilliant individual performances.
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Another month, another wave of shifts across Industry 4.0.
Here is what our team has been reading, watching and talking about…💫
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Automate 2026: The Talent Question Nobody Asked on the Show Floor
Humanoid robots. Natural language programming. AMR fleets rolling at scale. Automate 2026 delivered on the spectacle. But while the show floor was busy selling the future of automation, nobody was talking about who’s actually going to build, run, and maintain it.
That’s the question this piece is asking. Read it here .
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One New Technician for Every Seven Labs: Why the UK Dental Lab Workforce Needs a Rethink
The UK registered 143 new dental technicians in 2025. It has roughly 1,000 dental labs. This article examines what sits between those two numbers: a workforce in structural decline, a senior generation heading for retirement, and a digital transformation that is raising the bar for the role at exactly the moment the pipeline is thinning.
It is not about technology replacing technicians. It is about what happens when there are not enough technicians left to run the technology at all. Find it here.
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LPBF/DMLS Printing in the USA: Why Defense and MedTech Are Moving Metal AM Into Production
For years, metal 3D printing was a technology full of promise and short on production. That is changing. This article breaks down how LPBF/DMLS has moved into the strategic manufacturing infrastructure of U.S. defense and MedTech, why those two sectors in particular are driving adoption, and what the shift from prototyping tool to production system actually requires.
The question is no longer whether you can print it. It is whether you have the process, the qualification pathway and the people to make it repeatable. Read the full article here.
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It is clear that Industry 4.0 technology is moving fast… yet the hiring decisions that support it are moving slower. If you want to get ahead of that gap, contact our experts .
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Our latest rolesÂ
Our consultants have been busy this month, with new opportunities landing across robotics, automation, advanced manufacturing and beyond. It’s shaping up to be one of our strongest spreads of roles in a while.
Head to our jobs page on LinkedIn  or browse the full list of live roles on our website here.
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That’s all from us for this month. There’s never a shortage of things happening across Industry 4.0, and with conversations still coming out of Automate 2026, there’s plenty to keep an eye on. We’ve picked out the stories and updates that stood out to us, and we hope you’ve found something useful along the way.
As always, if anything in this edition has caught your eye, whether it’s an article, a role, or something you’re seeing in the market yourself, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a message at mail@kensington360.com or get in touch with one of the team for a chat.
Thanks for reading, and we’ll be back next month with more updates across Industry 4.0.
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