--- title: "New Manicure Robot Spells Potential Doom for Nail Salons" description: "Bad news (maybe) for nail salons everywhere: a new robot called Clockwork is in town, and claims to \"liberate\" people from apparent manicure hell." date: "2022-09-07" modified: "2022-09-07" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/robot-doom-nail-salons" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "robots" - "the digest" --- # New Manicure Robot Spells Potential Doom for Nail Salons ![Bad news (maybe) for nail salons everywhere: a new robot called Clockwork is in town, and claims to "liberate" people from apparent manicure hell.]() *\Image: Clockwork\* ## Robot N(AI)ls Bad news — maybe — for nail salons everywhere: a new robot called Clockwork claims to "liberate" people everywhere from the costly, time-consuming task of getting their nails done. And [according to *Yahoo*](), Target-goers at six of the mega-chain's many US locations are now able to get their nails done in-store, in under 10 minutes, for just [eight dollars](). "The first robot manicure for unstoppable humans," reads the Clockwork website. "No slip ups. No slow down. No small talk." ## Athena Woman The device sounds pretty impressive. As *Yahoo* reports, it uses AI and 3D scanning tech to determine the size and shape of a user's nails before painting and shaping away at a design chosen by the user. Ten minutes later? Salon-quality nails, allegedly. "Our AI can identify edges within 0.3mm accuracy and tells the robot what is skin and what is nail," the company [told *InStyle* back in April](). "This is then sent to our sophisticated algorithms which determine how the nozzle should move to deposit nail polish in the right places." Clockwork hinges its ethos on the idea of who who they call their "Athena Woman," a "trail blazing, time-pressed professional" who clearly doesn't have the space in her calendar to bother with lowly human manicurists. That being said, convenience here may come at a cost. Nail care is part of a [billion dollar industry](), and supports the livelihoods of many thousands — as [recently as 2018](), there were roughly 395,600 nail techs and over 56,000 individual salons. At the same time, nails are a brutal industry. Salon workers are exposed to [horrific levels of toxins]() and [terrible labor conditions](). Sure, freeing all those workers up from that grueling environment would be great. But for a robot to really help, they'd need a plausible new career to do instead. **READ MORE:** [*Robot manicure shakes up multibillion dollar nail industry*]() \[*Yahoo Finance*\] **More on robots:** [*New York State Buys Robots for Lonely Elders*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()