Leveraging intelligent technology pivot

Xie Kaixuan, marketing director of Dobot, said: "The key to embodied intelligence is moving from 'lab demonstration' to 'real-world commercial use'. At a cinema in Shenzhen, Dobot's humanoid robot has already achieved fully automated popcorn sales. It works 14 hours a day, and its daily revenue has exceeded 20,000 yuan."

Zhang Yin, vice-chairman and secretary-general of the Guangdong Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Industry Alliance, said: "The Greater Bay Area is the only region in the world that has both AI technology and mechatronics technology — and the ability to deeply integrate the two. This advantage is reflected in the collaboration and layout of Guangdong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region."

The export boom is not limited to walking or rolling machines. Smart glasses have become another unexpected hit. Equipped with real-time translation, visual assistance and noise-cancelling communication, they are flying off shelves from Tokyo to London. Chinese manufacturers have turned the glasses into a practical tool for business travellers and tourists alike.

In 2025, smart glass shipments in China reached 2.46 million units, a year-on-year increase of 87.1 percent. Overseas shipments grew by 64.9 percent, covering 32 countries and regions, according to data from market research company International Data Corp.

Local governments are also moving fast. The Hainan provincial government said it will focus on cultivating future industries and building new engines for development in 2026. In the field of embodied intelligence, Hainan will proactively plan for "brain-like models" tailored to unique application scenarios such as deep-sea exploration and tourism, and develop a variety of embodied intelligent robots, including underwater robots and cultural tourism consumer robots.

Seeing the potential, Beijing Galbot recently established a unit in Hainan, with a business scope covering the manufacturing of service and consumer robots and the research and development of intelligent robots.

What ties all these stories together is a fundamental shift in strategy. Chinese tech companies are no longer competing on price alone. They are offering a complete business loop: hardware to attract customers, software to keep them, and value-added services to generate long-term revenue. It is a model that has already proved successful in smartphones and electric vehicles — and now it is being applied to robotics and AI, experts added.

Contact the writers at masi@chinadaily.com.cn