About this session

For our very first Nest Collective session, we were joined by Manesh Jain — entrepreneur, founder, and someone who has spent years at the intersection of deep technology and real-world impact. The session covered his personal journey as a founder, and a wide-ranging conversation about the career landscape emerging from Physical AI and related fields.

The entrepreneurial journey

Manesh opened with something refreshingly honest — entrepreneurship is not a straight line. He walked the group through the pivots, the moments of self-doubt, and the decisions that looked wrong at the time but turned out to be defining. The founding of a company in the autonomous vehicle space came from a deep conviction that physical intelligence — machines that perceive and act in the real world — would reshape entire industries.

“The most important thing I learned is that clarity comes from doing, not from planning. You have to be in motion.”

He spoke candidly about what he looks for when he hires — and the answer surprised many in the room. It is rarely the degree or the grades. It is curiosity, the ability to sit with uncertainty, and the drive to build something from nothing.

The career landscape in Physical AI

The second half was a tour of an emerging world that most parents — and almost no school curricula — have mapped yet. Six fields that will define the next decade:

Physical AI — Systems that operate in the physical world: autonomous vehicles, robots, drones, smart manufacturing. Intelligence that acts in real time, not in the cloud.

Phygital systems — The seamless integration of physical and digital environments. Retail, logistics, healthcare, and education are all being rebuilt at this intersection.

Decision sciences — Making better decisions under uncertainty. Statistics, behavioural economics, and machine learning converge here. Every organisation needs this.

Sensory networks — The infrastructure of perception. Cameras, LIDAR, thermal sensors — the nervous system of the Physical AI world.

Vision AI — Computer vision applied across industries: medical imaging, quality control, sports analytics. One of the fastest-growing applied AI domains.

Edge AI — Intelligence that lives at the device, not the server. Critical in vehicles, hospitals, and remote environments where connectivity has limits.

What this means for our children

The best preparation for this world is not a specific degree — it is a mindset. Comfort with ambiguity. The ability to learn continuously. Children who build things, read widely, and are curious about how the world actually works will find remarkable opportunities in this landscape.