Why Dyson is investing in AI and robotics to make better vacuum cleaners

When Dyson unveiled its new hair dryer last year, the UK firm emphasized over and over again the amount of research it had done to develop the product. A thousand miles of “virgin hair” was purchased for testing the $400 Supersonic, four years were dedicated to development, and total R&D spending topped $72 million. All that to make a device that, in our estimation, only performed slightly better than the much-cheaper competition.But this has always been the Dyson way: invest in