AI has dramatically lowered the barrier to building impressive prototypes. Getting those prototypes into production is a different story. Every founder hopes their breakthrough becomes a product customers can rely on.
Yet the path from prototype to production rarely follows a straight line. Manufacturing challenges emerge. Infrastructure has to support growth.
Autonomous systems have to perform outside controlled environments. The problems change quickly once technology leaves the lab. That’s the focus of “From Prototype to Production: Can It Scale in Reality?“, taking place on the Real World AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
Leaders in space communications, autonomous systems, and AI infrastructure will share how they’ve navigated that transition, from promising innovation to production-ready deployment. Although every industry follows its own path, all three speakers have faced the same reality: a successful prototype is only the beginning. Disrupt returns to Moscone West in San Francisco, October 13–15, bringing together 10,000+ founders, investors, and operators for 250+ sessions exploring the technologies and market forces shaping what’s next.
Secure your Disrupt pass to hear how today’s innovators are moving breakthrough technologies into production. A working prototype answers one question: “Can it be done?” Production raises dozens more. Building optical communications hardware has little in common with deploying autonomous vehicles or autonomous construction equipment.
Yet each requires the technology to perform consistently outside controlled environments, where reliability, manufacturing, infrastructure, and day-to-day operations become integral to the product itself. This Real World AI Stage session doesn’t promise a single blueprint. Instead, it brings together founders who have tackled production from very different angles, offering a rare opportunity to compare what scaling looks like across industries.
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