LEADERSHIP Conversations with the Captains of Industry
‘Impossible is Nothing’: Pavlo Pikulin Disrupts Logistics
The gaming industry and the logistics market may have more in common than first appears, according to Pavlo Pikulin, CEO and co-founder of Deus Robotics, and former head of a gaming company. Pikulin’s aptitude for technology was evident early on. At 13, he was winning gaming competitions. He wrote several computer programs, including an automatic number-plate recognition system, which uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates and create vehicle location data. “It was the first AI system I created,” Pikulin says. With this accomplishment, he understood that he could teach a computer to understand and recognize its environment, and that it would be possible to create autonomous vehicles and robots that could handle manual tasks. At 19, Pikulin dreamed of creating a robotics company, but lacked resources. In addition, the robotics industry was in its infancy and few understood the value robots could offer. He launched WhaleApp, a gaming studio, to generate funding for his future robotics company. WhaleApp eventually attracted more than 60 million players and reached $50 million in annual revenue. In 2019, Pikulin started Deus Robotics, which is incorporated in the United States, with offices in Ukraine, Pikulin’s home country, and the UK. Deus Robotics offers a unified AI platform designed to connect, manage, and optimize any type of robot from any provider used in warehouse automation. “Robotics technologies will change our lives very unexpectedly, and for most people, in a good way,” he says. Pikulin shares his thoughts with Inbound Logistics . IL: What challenges did you face when you launched Deus Robotics, and how did you tackle them? We started by designing construction robots but quickly switched to logistics. In logistics, robots can make a huge difference across many processes immediately. One challenge we faced was our lack of logistics expertise. Our founding team had profound expertise in AI, robotics, and hardware, but robotics and AI engineers usually don’t have expertise in logistics. To address this, we needed to work with
Pavlo Pikulin, CEO and Co-founder, Deus Robotics
What do virtual worlds and warehouse automation have in common? More than you’d think. Pavlo Pikulin, CEO of Deus Robotics, says lessons from the gaming industry can reshape robotics, transform warehouses, and unlock the full potential of AI-powered logistics.
by Karen Kroll
10 Inbound Logistics • February 2025
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