Today, everybody say that AI and robotics will change everything. However, this type of prediction is not new. The world and our industry has heard similar promises before.
More than ten years ago, when 3D printing started, the narrative was very similar: manufacturing would become fully additive, implants would be patient-specific, and hospitals would print their own medical devices. Some companies did not wait for that future to arrive. Emerging Implant Technologies (EIT) was one of them, investing early in the 3D printing of porous titanium interbody cages. This strategy was later validated by the market when EIT was acquired by Johnson & Johnson, reinforcing the idea that additive manufacturing would shape the future of spine.
However, the future rarely unfolds exactly as predicted, or at least only does so partially. The internet did not eliminate physical retail, even though companies like Amazon transformed it. 3D printing did not replace other implant technologies or conventional machining. In the same way, it is unlikely that AI or robotics will fully replace human roles, at least for many decades (hopefully..!).
While industries such as aerospace, automotive, and Formula 1 have embraced additive manufacturing as a strategic tool, orthopedics still relies heavily on traditional processes with inflexible production models.
This is particularly relevant given what 3D printing already enables today: porous structures optimized for osteointegration, patient-specific designs, functional integration, and mechanical optimization. The technology has matured. Materials, processes, and validation methods are well established. The limitation is no longer technical.
The real barrier is cultural and strategic. Many organizations continue to prioritize reusing existing designs instead of redesigning products to fully leverage additive manufacturing. In addition, the traditional industrial model—based on oversized catalogs where a few products generate revenue while many consume resources—is increasingly difficult to justify in 2025. Additive manufacturing was specifically developed to address low-volume, high-variability challenges, which are inherent to orthopedics.
3D printing is no longer a future promise. It is a mature and available technology.
The question is no longer whether the spine industry will adopt it, but how, where, and with what level of ambition.
Because, as has happened many times before, change does not eliminate what exists—
it redefines it.