Robotics is exploding but stay in software if you want to make money
I started a bachelor's in robotics in 2013, then I moved into software. Here's why I don't regret it.
Software vs Robotics compensation difference in two pictures 👇️
These are two Zurich startups with small teams:
Founded by Italians
Born around 2025
~4-6M funding
High-caliber
Small teams
One pays interns 2.7k eur net/month.
The other, according to their listing: 3k to 4-4.5k eur/month net.
I guess the difference in full-time salaries will be similar.
There is a stark difference in pay between software and robotics
Usually, at comparable “tiers”, robotics companies pay less than software companies.
I started noticing it 13 years ago, when I started my bachelor in robotics.
This was in fact one of the reasons why I switched from robotics to software. In addition to software being more interesting for me, and software companies having offices in big cities’ downtowns and generally nicer perks.
Why does robotics pay less than software?
Software companies are generally higher margins: in robotics you need to pay hardware and manufacturing, which in software you generally don’t.
They are also easier to start and scale. This in turns creates larger markets, high labour demand, and ultimately higher salaries.
If you’re an AI engineer or similar, and you’re assessing if to go robotics or software, it’s worth keeping this in mind.
Will this change over the next 10 years?
In my opinion: unlikely.
Best it can happen for people in robotics is the compensation gap to narrow down. I think it’s extremely unlikely that robotics companies will start paying more than software companies.
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