536 robots, one fast-growing gap

536 is a small number for a world market. It's how many robots in the "care at home" category (AC3) the IFR counted worldwide in its World Robotics 2025 report for 2024 — a niche segment, but one growing a solid 16 percent year on year.

4.9 million is the other number: how many people were cared for at home in Germany as of December 2023, per the Federal Statistical Office — 86 percent of all 5.7 million people needing care. These figures aren't directly comparable — unit sales against care cases, worldwide against Germany alone — but they point at the same order-of-magnitude gap every ambulatory care service already recognises from daily reality.

16 percent growth sounds like fast convergence. It isn't, while the base is this small. Demand — measured by the number of people cared for at home — is growing structurally with demographic change, while the supply of deployable systems starts from a small base. In absolute terms, the gap is more likely to widen than narrow, even with double-digit growth on the supply side.

For an ambulatory care service, this global gap translates into a very concrete local one: too few available staff for too many rounds, worse on weekends and night shifts. In this setting, a robot doesn't replace a caregiver or a clinical decision — it takes on supporting, plannable tasks like moving residents between room, therapy and dining, or recurring reminder and check-in rounds, freeing time for the work that actually requires a trained caregiver.

As a vendor-neutral integrator, werob selects from 44+ OEM partners the system that fits the specific care setting — residential or ambulatory, building size, existing software. Spec within 48 hours, quote within 5 days, live operation within 8 weeks. For a deeper look at what actually works in ambulatory care today, see Robotics for ageing at home: what actually works in 2026 — this piece frames the market numbers, that one covers the state of the art in detail.

536 is a world-market figure, 4.9 million a German care-provision figure — both are real and sourced, but placing them side by side is an order-of-magnitude illustration, not a precise market-gap calculation. And werob does not currently publish a specific €/year saving for the home-care use case. What the available numbers do support, honestly, is the direction: a small, growing supply meeting a structurally large and still-growing demand.