Shanghai's World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) turned into a coming-out party for humanoid robots this year, with the machines drawing much of the attention on the show floor.
According to AnewZ, more than 1,100 firms unveiled AI innovations at the conference. Many of the standout demonstrations centered on humanoids. Reporting on the event describes robots capable of dancing, folding laundry, preparing sandwiches, and interacting naturally with people.
The scale of China's push in this field is notable. According to the Global Times, citing the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), China now has over 400 humanoid robot models — more than half of the global supply.
Individual companies used WAIC to show off new hardware and real-world uses. AGIBOT unveiled four new products at WAIC 2026, and more than 30 of its robots were operating across the conference venues, with the company highlighting industrial deployments and live demonstrations meant to show robotic capabilities turned into repeatable work, per its announcement.
Others focused on the home. Sunday Robotics unveiled home-robot AI that it says can fold laundry even in unfamiliar homes — a meaningful test, since household environments vary widely and robots typically struggle when conditions differ from their training.
Together, the demonstrations point to a shift from lab curiosities toward machines being positioned for factories, service work, and eventually households. The event also underscores how far China has moved to the front of the humanoid race, both in the sheer number of models and in the companies racing to commercialize them.
Why it matters: humanoid robots have long been more spectacle than substance, and a conference showing them doing ordinary chores — reliably and in new settings — signals the technology may be inching closer to everyday use.