ISRG INTUITIVE SURGICAL INC $141.6B

What they are doing

Intuitive sells robot-assisted surgery. The franchise is still the robot. On the 20 October 2026 call, Dave Rosa told Piper Sandler's Adam Maeder that about 8 percent of da Vinci 5 cases used force feedback, and that supply arrived late in the quarter. He described one prostatectomy surgeon, with more than 10,000 prior cases, whose potency curve sat about 10 points higher on da Vinci 5. The surgeon attributed that to force feedback. That is one surgeon, not a study. The same call said AI-controlled motion, a voice interface, and automated fourth-arm control are still in development and will not be deployed at scale until regulators, surgeons, and patients trust them. No number was given on Ion's navigation or on case insights. Force-feedback instruments received a European clearance. Ion procedure growth of 31 percent is volume, not an intelligence result.

Why the score

• Reach 3 not 4: Ion AI, Force Feedback, case insights are projects we can point to — not the whole chain.
• Weight 4 not 3: robotics plus named intelligence layers is how they go to market.
• Proof 3 not 4: the 8 percent is how often the instrument is used. The 10-point comment is one surgeon. The small Force Feedback study is still the evidence.

What would move it next quarter: An outcome study on force feedback, or a number on Ion's navigation. The 8 percent adoption figure will not move Proof.

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Evidence