"Li Bai" composes poems and "Einstein" holds conversations: robots accelerate into entertainment scenarios

From stage performances to scenic-area tours and museum explanations, robots are moving from simply "demonstrating technology" to becoming part of concrete services.

On September 22–23, the 2026 Beijing Culture Forum was held in Beijing. Among its events, the 2026 Beijing Culture Forum Cultural Industry Investors Conference opened on September 23 under the theme "Financial Vitality Nourishes Culture, Digital Intelligence Wings Open the Future," bringing together about 600 representatives of investment and financing institutions, experts and scholars, and cultural enterprises.

During the forum, a reporter from The Beijing News Shell Finance followed the "Exploring the Technology Yizhuang, Experiencing the Intelligent Manufacturing Future" observation activity to the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. From humanoid robots that can write poetry and dance, to exoskeleton robots already deployed in scenic areas, to robot products in fields such as logistics, industry and healthcare, robots are trying to enter more and more application scenarios. Among them, consumer-facing fields such as entertainment and cultural tourism have become a window through which ordinary people perceive the deployment of robots.

The "Einstein" robot on display at the Robot World. Photo by Wei Yingzi, reporter for The Beijing News Shell Finance

Writing poetry, dancing... moving from simply "demonstrating technology" to service positions

"Hello, what is your name?"

Faced with the question, a humanoid robot resembling Einstein quickly responded. According to on-site staff, this robot can simulate human facial expressions and body movements, is connected to a large AI model, and has been loaded with Einstein-related materials, enabling Chinese-English interaction and answering questions in the persona of the set character.

A few steps away, another robot resembling Li Bai matched poetic lines. Given a theme, it can compose a poem; alternatively, given the first half of a line, the robot supplies the second half. The staff member said such products support customization based on different IP characters and can be used in cultural tourism scenic areas or museums, undertaking tasks such as guiding and reception.

Robots entering cultural consumption scenarios do not rely only on "being able to chat."

At the site, robots performing martial arts, playing soccer, playing the piano, practicing tai chi and dancing appeared in turn. A robot named "Lingxi X2" can sing, run, dance, ride a bike and perform other actions, and is currently mainly used in entertainment commercial performance scenarios. Staff said the robot has already appeared as a host at this year's Hunan TV New Year's Eve gala. In addition, UBTECH's small robot "Alpha Ebot" can perform group dance performances through a unified control system, and educational research institutions have already used it as an education platform.

Compared with scenarios such as industrial manufacturing, entertainment and cultural tourism place more emphasis on robots' interaction and display capabilities. From stage performances to scenic-area tours and museum explanations, robots are moving from simply "demonstrating technology" to becoming part of concrete services.

Beyond performance and interaction, robots have also begun to take on more practical service functions in scenic areas. According to staff, an intelligent walking-assistance exoskeleton robot from Daiai uses a carbon-fiber lightweight design for the whole unit, weighs 2.5 kilograms, and is equipped with an AI gait recognition system that can identify different actions such as starting to walk and going up and down stairs and provide assistance. At present, the product has entered scenic areas including Mount Tai, Fragrant Hills and the Badaling Great Wall, providing services on a rental basis.

The "Li Bai" robot. Photo by Wei Yingzi, reporter for The Beijing News Shell Finance

Sorting about 1,200 small express parcels per hour on average, embodied intelligence drives enterprise procurement

Entertainment and cultural tourism are only one part of robot deployment.

At the site, the reporter saw robots simulating an e-commerce fulfillment environment to complete tasks such as order understanding, picking and packing, as well as logistics sorting and autonomous battery swapping; in another exhibition area, robot dogs were used for logistics, inspection and other work in industrial parks. According to on-site staff, a half-body humanoid robot has 43 degrees of freedom in total, with 12 degrees of freedom in a single hand, and can sort about 1,200 small express parcels per hour on average; it has already been put into use at logistics companies such as SF Express and China Post.

In the field of embodied intelligence, demand on the enterprise procurement side is growing. Data from the State Taxation Administration shows that from January to May this year, sales revenue of embodied intelligence industry enterprises achieved a relatively fast growth rate of 22.4 percent on the basis of a 13.9 percent increase for the full year of 2025. By segment, sales revenue of enterprises engaged in robot bodies and complete-machine manufacturing, AI algorithms and software integration, and system integration and industry applications grew by 30.1 percent, 24.5 percent and 27.9 percent year on year, while sales revenue of core component manufacturing enterprises grew by 6.8 percent year on year. Over the same period, the total amount spent by industrial enterprises on purchasing embodied intelligence robots increased 2.3 times year on year.

The consumer side has also seen growth. Data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that in July this year, sales of embodied intelligence robots on key platforms grew by 95.1 percent, sales of exoskeleton assist devices grew by 39.5 percent, sales of action cameras grew by 24.7 percent, and sales of robot vacuum cleaners grew by 19.4 percent.

Data from Beijing Yizhuang shows that more than 300 robotics and embodied intelligence ecosystem enterprises have gathered there, with the industrial chain scale exceeding 20 billion yuan, and a complete industrial layout covering core components, complete-machine R&D, pilot testing and scenario demonstration has been built.

From scenic-area tours and entertainment commercial performances to logistics sorting, robots are entering more concrete scenarios. As market data such as procurement and sales grow, the industry's focus is further shifting toward application and commercialization. Entertainment and cultural tourism have become among the scenarios through which ordinary people most intuitively perceive robots entering real life.

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