At China's annual World Robot Conference, which kicked off on Wednesday, the hall was filled with humanoid robots wowing visitors with feats of dexterity — from playing table tennis to performing drum solos. The displays underscored how spectacle has powered the narrative around China's robotics sector in recent years.
Those eye-catching demonstrations have paid off: they have helped China's robotics industry win global attention and raise huge amounts of capital over the past couple of years, cementing the country's reputation as a rising force in advanced robotics.
Yet beneath the showmanship, the mood at this year's summit was markedly different. The overriding sentiment among executives, investors and policymakers was starkly pragmatic, with the industry widely seen as reaching a critical juncture where attention-grabbing demos must give way to scalable, commercially viable deployment. How firms navigate that transition may determine whether today's spectacle becomes lasting industrial strength.