THE 30STARTUPS OF KANSAI

Godot is a deep-tech startup founded in Kobe, Japan in 2022, dedicated to the research and social implementation of physical AI for behavior change. Under the mission “Inspire personal & societal growth using Human Augmentation,” we integrate behavioral science, cognitive science, AI, and data science to scientifically understand human decision-making and encourage desirable behaviors. Our technology runs a continuous loop of diagnosing behavior from data, designing interventions, executing them, and learning from outcomes. Execution goes beyond on-screen information: robots and devices act directly on people in physical space, with applications in health promotion, education and coaching, and urban climate adaptation.

As societies age and caregivers dwindle, the sustainability of everyday infrastructure—preventive care, elderly support, urban safety—ultimately depends on human behavior. Getting screened, staying active, avoiding extreme heat: behaviors people know they should adopt but often cannot. Godot supports them with behavioral science and AI. We design programs that raise health-screening rates for municipalities, give insurers platforms supporting policyholders’ healthy behaviors, and deliver urban planners behavioral simulations incorporating perceived temperature and pedestrian flows. Beyond digital channels, we advance physical AI, where sensors and robots support people in real space—turning technology into social infrastructure that enables people to act.

Godot’s distinctiveness combines a strategically built patent portfolio with technology that keeps learning. Our AI products are grounded in behavioral-science evidence; within four years of founding we have registered 20 patents, layering foundational simulation patents beneath domain-specific applications. The core is not one clever intervention but a continuous loop: diagnosing behavior, designing interventions, executing them, and learning from outcomes. Execution extends beyond screens into physical AI, where robots and devices adapt motion, expression, and voice to human biosignals, so the system grows smarter with use. This approach earned global recognition, including selection as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2026.

Godot aims to set the global standard for the human side of physical AI: the intelligence layer that understands people’s contexts, motivations, and habits in the physical world and designs behavior change. Our physical AI extends beyond robots to sensors, living environments, and cities. We read behavioral barriers from sensors and dialogue, predict city behavior from perceived temperature and pedestrian flows, and reach people through apps, devices, and robots. However smart machines become, value emerges only when human behavior changes. Built on behavioral-science patents and outcome data, we supply this behavioral brain, prediction through intervention, to every machine and channel.