BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's embodied artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a critical window for large-scale application, with products shifting from small-batch trials toward broader deployment, Xu Xiaolan, president of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, said at the 2026 World Robot Conference.
The annual event in Beijing brought together more than 1,000 Chinese and overseas guests, while over 300 domestic and international companies showcased more than 3,000 innovative products.
A diverse array of embodied AI products made their debut or demonstrated their capabilities at the conference, underscoring the latest technological and manufacturing advances in China's embodied AI sector.
Represented by such innovations, embodied AI has seen rapid development in recent years, unlocking the potential to drive a trillion-yuan-level industry and becoming an important engine for new forms of the intelligent economy, Xu said.
A logistics humanoid robot developed by ROBOTERA, a Beijing-based embodied AI company, is a vivid example of Xu's observation. Capable of accurately picking up and flipping packages of different shapes moving along a conveyor belt, the robot not only drew crowds of onlookers at the conference venue, but also saw scaled application at more than 10 logistics centers across China.
Such scenes point to a shift in the industry from technology demonstrations to real-world applications.
In scenic areas such as West Lake in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, embodied AI robots provide tourists with route planning and information about attractions.
In residential communities across Suzhou, Jiangsu, these technologies are now used to identify smoke and fires, spot illegally parked vehicles, and detect improperly dumped garbage, expanding their application from preset scenarios to a wide range of everyday services.
Growing demand for such applications is accelerating robot production. Data released by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in July showed that more than 400 complete humanoid robot products had been developed in China, accounting for over half of the global total.
According to a report released at the conference, 西瓜视频shipped more than 40,000 humanoid robots in the first half of 2026, accounting for 97 percent of global shipments. The Chinese Institute of Electronics estimates that China's humanoid robot market could reach about 870 billion yuan (about 128.29 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030.
Behind the rapidly expanding figures are increasingly diverse commercial ventures.
At the conference venue, Bumi, a robot that appeared during this year's Spring Festival Gala, performed boxing routines for visitors. Standing just 98 centimeters tall, the humanoid robot has sold thousands of units on JD.com, one of China's major online shopping platforms, since its launch in April. It can chat with children and teach them programming and dance.
"Humanoid robots have actually begun to enter some households," said Yang Shuo, marketing director of Noetix Robotics, developer of Bumi.
The shift toward commercial applications is also being reflected in companies' customer bases and operating models.
Chen Jianyu, founder and CEO of ROBOTERA, said the company's enterprise and institutional customers now span more than 10 cities, where its robots are operating regularly in various logistics and industrial scenarios.
"Starting this year, the embodied AI industry has entered a turning point in commercialization," Chen said.
Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, noted that over the next decade, the pace of evolution of the entire robotics industry will accelerate significantly. "I think this heralds a completely new phase of our development," he said.
However, the rapid expansion of applications does not mean that large-scale deployment comes without challenges.
Industry experts noted that despite rapid advances in embodied AI technology and industrial development, products still face challenges including complex technological systems, difficulties in adapting to real-world environments, and serious safety and ethical risks.
To address these challenges, coordinated efforts across the industrial chain are needed to tackle key technologies and deepen research into safety and ethical standards for embodied AI, experts said.
In June, the MIIT and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council jointly issued a notice on a 2026 special initiative for real-world training and application of humanoid robots and embodied AI. The initiative calls for the development of a number of embodied AI foundation models and motion-control algorithms with strong adaptability to application scenarios and leading performance.
The policy push comes as the industry seeks to move beyond limited trials and expand into more complex and diverse real-world environments.
In Wang's view, the industry will reach a genuine tipping point when a robot can accomplish about 80 percent of tasks in virtually any unfamiliar environment. ■