CIIE's "intelligence" content hits a new high: AI shifts from exhibit to hardware foundation and factory rhythm

If at previous editions of the China International Import Expo (CIIE) artificial intelligence was still a "novel and exotic" exhibit displayed on its own and requiring docents to explain it over and over, then the biggest change at this year's CIIE is this: AI is no longer being "put out" on its own; it is beginning to become the "foundation" of hardware, the "beat" of factories, the "nerves" of equipment, the "brain" of machines... This year's AI narrative is shifting from "how big the model is, how strong the computing power is" to "can it actually do the work." Judging from on-site observation, single-point showmanship among exhibits is decreasing while full-chain collaboration is increasing—upstream are chips and storage, midstream are agents and humanoid robots, downstream are medical devices, consumer terminals and professional services, and many companies are also gaining a second growth curve through AI. At the same time, AI is also reshaping the CIIE itself in reverse: the specially set-up AI and embodied intelligence exhibition area, the exoskeleton robots available for rent to all exhibitors, and the robots brewing tea and providing guided tours in the news center all make this expo, themed on imports, a window for observing how well the global AI industry is being implemented. The "AI+" era has already arrived. AI Builds the Foundation: Computing Power, Storage and Energy Take Center Stage The technical equipment exhibition area of the CIIE has always been the most hardcore area, and this year it gathers 70 Fortune Global 500 companies, industry leaders and a large number of European and American "hidden champions," while the "foundation" of AI is collectively unveiled in such a complete form for the first time. At the center of the booth of Qualcomm, a company that has attended all nine editions of the CIIE, sits the world's first 6G terminal prototype compliant with the latest 3GPP standards. This prototype is leaving the laboratory for a global debut for the first time, and is also the only communications equipment exhibit selected among the 25 "black tech" and "hard tech" exhibits chosen for this year's CIIE. Qualcomm publicly displays the world's first 6G terminal prototype compliant with the latest 3GPP definition for the first time at its CIIE booth. In addition to the 6G terminal prototype, Qualcomm also brought an application demonstration for 6G networks—AI Recall, also called AI memory. 6G is an AI-native network, and there is such a demonstration on site: through a pair of smart glasses, surrounding objects are photographed and captured at a frequency of two frames per second, and these images are then uploaded via a mobile phone to an edge-side server for AI inference. The edge server performs semantic vectorized encoding based on the objects in the images and supports semantic-based retrospective retrieval. "When I forget where I put my car keys, I can ask the glasses, and it can display the specific image of the car keys along with time information," said Li Yonggang, Technical Marketing Director of Qualcomm China's Marketing Department. He also revealed that Qualcomm has reached a consensus on 6G development with nearly 60 partners worldwide, including nearly 20 Chinese partners, and hopes to promote 6G's gradual commercialization starting from 2029. Intel demonstrated multi-layered computing capabilities ranging from underlying chips to system deployment. It brought third-generation Core Ultra processors using the 18A process, third-generation Core processors and Xeon 6+ processors, covering client, edge and data center platforms. Among them, Xeon 6+ is equipped with up to 288 efficiency cores and 576MB of L3 cache, and a single processor can stably support more than 1,000 agents. In the field of intelligent terminals, on-device AI is moving from "waiting for instructions" to "proactive service." Intel, together with ecosystem partners, is introducing agent applications and systems such as Baidu Dazi, Doubao Work and WorkBuddy into personal computers, allowing agents to be deeply integrated into workflows such as office and study, creative design, entertainment and life, and computer settings. AI Enters the Factory: Agents Drive the Industrial Beat If computing power is the foundation of AI, then agents are the new favorite. Unlike the industrial AI of the past that stayed in demonstration videos, the agents on this year's booths are more often measured within real production processes: can it understand requirements, can it write code, can it optimize configurations, and ultimately can it keep up with the beat of the factory. At Siemens' booth, you can see Eigen, the world's first AI agent for industrial automation engineering. It can understand project requirements, write code, complete visual development, drive configuration optimization, and improve execution efficiency by 2 to 5 times compared with manual workflows, raise engineering efficiency by 50% and improve solution quality by 80%. Since its launch in the Chinese market in July this year, it has been deployed in hundreds of local manufacturing enterprises, covering industries such as automotive, machinery, electrical, chemical and life sciences. Along with it, the "one-stop AI solution from visual inspection to edge applications" can complete scanning of static or dynamic workpieces in as fast as 0.3 seconds, requires only 20 positive samples to complete model training, and reduces the time required for quality inspection by up to 95% compared with manual work. Xiao Song, President of Siemens Greater China, said that the company will fully leverage the multiplier effect of "global experience, local innovation and China speed" to transform cutting-edge technology into industrial value. This year's Bosch booth has reached a new high in "intelligence" content. In addition to the debut of the AI-Hybrid intelligent hybrid whole-house climate solution, innovative technologies and products such as intelligent assisted driving solutions, AI smart cockpits and integrated motion intelligent control solutions were all unveiled. Xu Daquan, President of Bosch China, admitted frankly: "Intelligence and sustainable development are becoming the core mainlines of transformation and innovation across Bosch's businesses." This Fortune Global 500 company, renowned worldwide for its MEMS sensors, is making embodied intelligence a key future growth point in China. Among these, robotic hands are their main focus. The robotic finger tactile sensing product exhibited by Bosch can simulate human skin and perceive subtle tactile changes. It integrates Bosch magnetometers and inertial measurement units and can monitor in real time the rotational posture of the robot's hand and the direction of its fingertips. Xu Daquan promoted this product by noting that it is stable and strong when gripping hard objects such as apples, and gentle and meticulous when holding fragile objects such as eggs, making every grasp just right, like a human hand. HG Technology (Shanghai Hugong), meanwhile, has condensed more than 30 years of welding development experience into a robot's "brain," and this year brought for the first time a humanoid robot welding solution that requires no teaching: with no manual point-by-point teaching needed, once the workpiece is in place it can autonomously identify the weld seam, plan the weld seam trajectory, and complete welding of workpieces within 2 meters in width. AI on the exhibition stand: robots move toward real scenarios. If you want to name the area with the highest concentration of AI elements at the CIIE, it is of course the "embodied intelligence + AI" experience zone opened for the first time this year, where robots from more than 20 companies wait to "spar" with visitors. Here, robots are no longer just exhibits viewed through glass cases, but are placed on table tennis tables, boxing rings and daily companion scenarios to be tested in real environments. At the Hitch Open stand in the Lingang exhibition area, a humanoid robot competes with staff members at table tennis. Table tennis is a highly dynamic sport full of uncertainty. To trade a few shots with a human, it first needs good "eyes" to capture the position and motion state of the ball; second, a good "brain" to infer the ball's speed, direction and possible landing point; and third, a good "body" to produce coordinated movements of the arm, torso and even legs. Tang Minqin, global chairman of Hitch Open, revealed that the table tennis robot exhibited this time uses the AgiBot Expedition A3 humanoid robot body, while the software was developed by the FHL Vive augmented reality center at the University of California, Berkeley, and has achieved 106 consecutive rallies between a humanoid robot and a human opponent. AgiBot publicly unveiled two new scenarios for the first time at the CIIE, having accumulated 62,000 effective intelligent work hours. Unitree Robotics' boxing stand is always surrounded by onlookers, and many foreigners take out their phones. "Now robots fighting on the ring is not as fun as before." The increasingly good performance of the robot G1 on the ring drew teasing from its "father" Wang Xingxing. "Now they are too stable; it is very, very hard to knock them down." That said, Wang Xingxing's judgment on embodied intelligence does not stop at ring performance. At the Hongqiao International Economic Forum sub-forum "Cooperation on Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots and the Embodied Intelligence Industry," he gave a more specific coordinate: the core challenge of current physical AI is not the model itself—the understanding and planning capabilities of multimodal models are already very good—the real shortcoming is the alignment between models and the physical world. Using the world's top multimodal models to directly control a robot to grasp large objects, the success rate is already close to 100%; but when switched to precision operations such as assembling parts, the success rate drops markedly. He judges that this part of the problem is expected to be well solved in the next one to two years. At the Moli Workshop booth of Haizhi Zhizao, the lower right shows the Hug Stress-Relief Sleep Companion Robot. Among the many humanoid or wheeled robots, the Hug Stress-Relief Sleep Companion Robot at the Haizhi Zhizao booth in the China Pavilion became a eye-catching hit with its manta ray appearance. Duan Dantong, general manager of the Moli Workshop business unit of Haizhi Zhizao, said that this flexible soft robot technology, originally applied in professional fields such as healthcare, brings bionic tactile sensations of gentle stroking, wrapping and hugging. People's subtle need for companionship has become a new entry point for this technology to enter daily life. AI integrates into the exhibition: services shift from exhibits to daily life. Another easily overlooked change at this CIIE is that AI has begun to transform the exhibition itself. In the past, AI was an object displayed on stands; this year, it has become a service provider in the event's operating processes, quietly entering the daily routines of media work, visitor experience and on-site support. "Click!" As the reporter had just walked into the news center of the ninth CIIE, a special "photographer" raised a Polaroid camera, gently pressed the shutter with its finger, and took a souvenir photo of the reporter. This "photographer" comes from Sharpa (Daliegu), and at this CIIE its task is to take exclusive CIIE images for media reporters from around the world. When you are tired from walking around, you might as well go to the AgiBot booth for a cup of tea. This "AI tea master" autonomously completes the entire set of traditional Chinese tea brewing steps: taking tea, adding tea, pouring water, rinsing the tea, steeping, pouring tea, dividing into cups and serving tea. The AgiBot Expedition A3 Ultra is responsible for front desk reception; in addition to greeting, conversing and handing over drinking water, it can also complete refined operations such as information entry and handing over room cards. Last year, the 21st Research Institute of CETC set up an exoskeleton service point for young volunteers at the CIIE for the first time; this year the service has been fully expanded to exhibitors and visitors, with full coverage of both scenarios. Zhao Can, an engineer at the 21st Research Institute, said that the "Baihong · Exploration Arc Pro" brought this time is lightweight civilian intelligent equipment developed specifically for daily scenarios such as outdoor sports, long-distance walking, and mountain climbing and stair climbing, and is adaptable to various complex terrains including flat ground, uphill and downhill slopes, and stairs. Renting it is also simple: users only need to scan the QR code at the booth and follow the online instructions to complete self-service rental, and the device supports flexible hourly billing. The 21st Research Institute of CETC set up an exoskeleton robot rental point for exhibitors and visitors at the CIIE. At this year's CIIE, AI is completing an identity transformation from "being watched" to "being used." Computing power and storage have become the foundation, intelligent agents have entered the factory rhythm, robots are moving toward real scenarios, and AI in turn serves the exhibition itself... AI has become infrastructure that we use daily without noticing, ubiquitous.