PeopleofSuperintelligence

Builder

Brett Adcock

Brett Adcock is a builder whose work has carried AI from recruiting software to humanoid robots. Raised on a central Illinois farm, he earned a University of Florida business degree and started Vettery, an AI-based marketplace for matching talent with employers. He founded Archer’s electric-aircraft business before setting Figure’s goal of general-purpose humanoids, and he also worked on Cover’s AI scanners for concealed weapons. Figure later agreed with OpenAI to develop robot models, tested Figure 02 at BMW’s Spartanburg plant, and partnered with Brookfield on real-world training data for Helix.

Now at
Figure
Photo of Brett Adcock

Timeline

  1. 2008

    From farm to campus

    Raised on a third-generation farm in central Illinois, he earned a BSBA from the University of Florida in 2008.

  2. 2012–2018

    Matching people through AI

    At 26, he started Vettery, an AI-based talent marketplace that matched companies with employees. The Adecco Group acquired it in 2018 for $110 million.

  3. 2018–2022

    Taking electric air taxis public

    He founded Archer, an electric-aircraft company, and helped take it public at a $2.7 billion valuation. In 2022, he left Archer.

  4. May 2022

    Giving AI a body

    He set Figure’s goal as building general-purpose humanoids and described autonomous everyday tasks as a central AI challenge.

  5. 2023

    Scanning for concealed weapons

    In 2023, he described Cover as an AI security company building non-intrusive scanners with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to search crowds for concealed weapons.

  6. February 2024

    Teaching robots to read language

    Figure agreed with OpenAI to develop next-generation AI models for its humanoid robots. The collaboration aimed to help the robots interpret natural-language commands in human environments.

  7. August 2024

    Testing Figure 02 at BMW

    Figure 02 completed a multiweek test at BMW’s Spartanburg plant, inserting sheet-metal parts into fixtures for chassis assembly. Adcock said the second-generation robot could perform complex tasks fully autonomously.

  8. September 2025

    Training Helix in human spaces

    The partnership aimed to give Figure a real-world humanoid pretraining dataset and AI infrastructure for Helix, its vision-language-action model. Figure had begun capturing human video in Brookfield spaces to teach robots to move, perceive, and act in human-centered environments.

Sources and credits

Photo: Brett Adcock, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Take Off in a Flying Car With UF Engineers and Alumni innovate.research.ufl.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Bio | Brett Adcock Official brettadcock.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. High-tech entrepreneur Brett Adcock on Figure, Archer, and early success newatlas.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Master Plan | Figure figure.ai. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Humanoid AI-driven robotics startup Figure raises $675M at $2.6B valuation siliconangle.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Successful test of humanoid robots at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg press.bmwgroup.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Figure Announces Strategic Partnership with Brookfield figure.ai. Checked 14 October 2026.