For years, the Bali pitch to Aussies has been the same: cheap flights, warm water, cold Bintangs, and a plate of nasi goreng that costs less than a packet of Instant Noodles at home. All still true. But something new is happening on the island’s most famous stretch of sand. And it says a lot about where Bali, and travel itself, is heading.
Meet the Robots at Finns Beach Club
Canggu’s Finns Beach Club has just introduced a resident squad of humanoid robots, in partnership with AI transformation agency botshift. They’re not locked behind glass at some tech expo – they’re on the dance floor, going head-to-head with human dancers, posing for guest photos, and appearing alongside the DJs during golden hour.
It’s a genuinely strange thing to see: a humanoid robot busting moves against a real dancer while the sun drops into the Indian Ocean behind them. Finns Global CEO Beau Whittington says that collision is the whole point – the idea wasn’t to build an exhibit, but to drop physical AI straight into a place Australians already know and love.
botshift co-founder Alex Ronalds put it simply: this makes Bali one of the first places on Earth where you can walk in off the street and meet a humanoid robot with genuine character – no ticket, no lab, no appointment. You just need to be at the beach club anyway.
What Finns and botshift are tapping into is the idea of “physical AI” – robots and embodied technology moving out of research labs and into everyday spaces. Framing that shift around a beach club dance floor rather than a trade show is a smart bit of positioning, and it fits a destination that has always been good at making the unfamiliar feel accessible.
For Aussies weighing up their next trip, the pitch hasn’t really changed – it has simply gained a new layer. Bali is still the easy, affordable, ridiculously scenic escape (espeically if you avoid the Bali Bogan tattoos) it’s always been. It’s just now also the kind of place where you might end up dancing next to a robot at sunset.
The Finns resident robot squad performs regularly at Finns Beach Club, Canggu, with dance-offs, DJ appearances and guest photo moments running throughout the week.
