Your next high-end carbon fiber bicycle probably won’t be “handmade” in the traditional sense. And that’s a good thing.

For decades, “handmade” has meant skilled technicians meticulously placing hundreds of tiny, pre-cut carbon fiber sheets (“plies”) into a mold. It’s an artisanal process that’s slow, expensive, and prone to tiny, invisible human errors like wrinkles or voids. But new research from 2024 and 2025 shows this “analog” era is ending. The future of frame building is a partnership between a creative AI and a hyper-precise robot.