If you boil down what the brain really does, it chooses actions based on experience and inputs. If we want an AI that will operate in the real world, then yes,

If you boil down what the brain really does, it chooses actions based on experience and inputs. If we want an AI that will operate in the real world, then yes, it will need some sort of body so it can learn how the world works (physics simulations are nowhere near as complete as the real world is). If we want an AI that makes financial predictions, then streaming in stock prices, financial reports, news data, etc is enough input and no body is necessary. An AI that isn't going to produce any physical action doesn't necessarily need to learn physical movements, etc. Having said that, physical environment simulations are ahead of where AIs are right now so they're a good place to start.