From Copiers to Robots - PUDU & The Continuum

A practical dealer conversation about service robots, PUDU, and the next connected machine category in office technology

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The copier channel has always been built around machines that live inside real businesses.

Not theory. Not hype. Real machines. Machines with serial numbers, service histories, lease paperwork, parts, training, customer expectations, and somebody’s name attached to the account when the thing stops behaving.

That is what makes From Copiers to Robots an interesting webinar. It is not treating robotics like a moonshot. It is treating robotics like a new equipment category moving toward a channel that already understands connected hardware, local support, recurring agreements, and customer trust.

Xerox: King Lear or The Odyssey

By Robert G. Jordan | greg report Ai

Xerox has the old-king problem.

A once-commanding name gave away too much authority, got stripped down by market weather, watched its kingdom fracture, and now stands in the storm asking what power remains when ceremony, size, and reputation no longer protect you. That is Lear on the heath. The crown still means something, but only after the storm reveals what was real and what was theater.

For Xerox, the “storm” is the decline of print, the stock price, activist pressure, leadership turnover, the Fujifilm break, the Icahn years, and the Lexmark integration. The old court is gone. The robe is wet. The old script no longer works.

Xerox and Blade Runner - By Robert G. Jordan | greg report Ai

Xerox and Blade Runner share the same uneasy question: what remains human, useful, and valuable after the original world has moved on?

In Blade Runner, the future is built from old architecture, neon, corporate towers, rain, decay, and machines that behave too much like people. It is a world where the past never really dies. It just gets rewired, renamed, and left humming in the dark.

That is Xerox.

OFFICE TECH & AI – Artificial Intelligence in Your World: No Experts, Just Opinions

I felt a tingling sensation in my chest—the kind you get when you realize you’re witnessing a major historical event. It is not just a chatbot. It is a portal to a future where we no longer have to do the ‘boring’ work of thinking.” — Kevin Roose (The New York Times, December 5, 2022)

The fear of COVID had faded, but the power struggle between leadership and a remote workforce was in full swing. For the knowledge workers, the ones who used to stand in front of our photocopiers, the office was now a commute away. In this chaos, AI arrived. It wasn’t just fuel for the fire; for the salesperson, it was the most significant tool to arrive since Act! customer relationship management platform in 1987.

Xerox Is the Canary Now

By Charlie G. Peterson IV | greg report 2027

The old dealer-floor joke had teeth: when HP caught a cold, everyone else got the Zombie Flu.

It worked because HP had mass. Shelves moved when HP sneezed. Toner pricing twitched. Buyers paused. Competitors suddenly found themselves explaining why their “strategic direction” looked suspiciously like a man sweating through his polo beside the demo unit.

That metaphor feels dated now.

Xerox has taken the perch.

Not because Xerox dominates the room. That crown wandered off years ago. Xerox matters because its numbers expose the weak boards underneath the old channel floor: print volume, equipment placements, post-sale revenue, managed print stickiness, debt, service economics, and the nasty question of what happens when a legacy print company buys scale because time has grown expensive.

The Q1 2026 earnings statement opens with a recovery story. Revenue hit $1.846 billion, up 26.7% year over year. Adjusted operating income reached $72 million. Adjusted operating margin climbed to 3.9%, up 240 basis points from last year. Xerox reaffirmed full-year guidance: revenue above $7.5 billion, adjusted operating income of $450 million to $500 million, and free cash flow around $250 million.

ECS 2026: The Legacy Embedded in the Future

ECS 2026

Twelve years ago, I attended the 2014 ECS. I’m not the only one who can wax nostalgic about an Executive Connection Summit from over a decade ago, but here I am.

Post and Walters, Ask Us Anything

This episode of the Crickets show featured Greg, Art, and special guest Keith from PUDU Robotics discussing the company's new products and go-to-market strategy. 

Keith introduced PUDU's latest cleaning robot, the BG1 series, which features AI object detection, wet/dry area recognition, and fleet communication capabilities, with pre-orders expected to ship in late April and mass distribution in June. 

The discussion covered PUDU's U.S. market strategy, including their new Dallas headquarters and existing warehouses in Los Angeles and New Jersey, as well as their upcoming presence at the Modex trade show in April. 

The conversation also touched on PUDU's quadruped robot (D5) for potential security and inspection applications, and the growing interest in robotics within the office equipment dealer community.