Mentions of robotics within the filings of companies in the power industry rose 59% between the first and second quarters of 2021.

In total, the frequency of sentences related to robotics between July 2020 and June 2021 was 329% higher than in 2016 when GlobalData, from whom our data for this article is taken, first began to track the key issues referred to in company filings.

When companies in the power industry publish annual and quarterly reports, ESG reports and other filings, GlobalData analyses the text and identifies individual sentences that relate to disruptive forces facing companies in the coming years. Robotics is one of these topics - companies that excel and invest in these areas are thought to be better prepared for the future business landscape and better equipped to survive unforeseen challenges.

To assess whether robotics is featuring more in the summaries and strategies of companies in the power industry, two measures were calculated. Firstly, we looked at the percentage of companies which have mentioned robotics at least once in filings during the past twelve months – this was 36% compared to 7% in 2016. Secondly, we calculated the percentage of total analysed sentences that referred to robotics.

Of the 50 biggest employers in the power industry, Kyushu Electric Power was the company that referred to robotics the most between July 2020 and June 2021. GlobalData identified 18 robotics-related sentences in the Japan-based company's filings – 0.6% of all sentences. Tohoku Electric Power  mentioned robotics the second most – the issue was referred to in 0.4% of sentences in the company's filings. Other top employers with high robotics mentions included Ebara Corp, Kansai Electric Power, and ABB.

Across all companies in the power industry, the filing published in the second quarter of 2021 that exhibited the greatest focus on robotics came from FirstEnergy. Of the document's 1,181 sentences, seven (0.6%) referred to robotics.

This analysis provides an approximate indication of which companies are focusing on robotics and how important the issue is considered within the power industry, but it also has limitations and should be interpreted carefully. For example, a company mentioning robotics more regularly is not necessarily proof that they are utilising new techniques or prioritising the issue, nor does it indicate whether the company's ventures into robotics have been successes or failures.

In the last quarter, companies in the power industry based in Asia were most likely to mention robotics, with 0.09% of sentences in company filings referring to the issue. In contrast, companies with their headquarters in the United States mentioned robotics in just 0.01% of sentences.

GlobalData has compiled a list of top MNCs based on revenue. Any top companies that did not have a subsidiary were removed from the list. The latest company annual reports (2019 and 2020, where available) and websites were analysed for a total of 2,188 companies.

For a subsidiary to be included, the parent company had to have a majority ownership/control in the subsidiary. Affiliates, associates, joint operations and joint ventures were included as long as the ownership criteria was met. Subsidiary information was captured at a country level. Country names were standardised. In total, 216,898 subsidiaries were captured.