A Unitree humanoid robot interacts with visitors at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2025 in Shanghai, China, on July 26, 2025. — Bloomberg
Artificial intelligence technology to get humanoid robots into the mainstream remains a key challenge for the sector, according to the founder of one of China’s prominent robot developers.
The level of expertise could be reached in as little as one to three years, said Wang Xingxing, chief executive officer of Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co Ltd. He likened the environment now to the ChatGPT breakout moment in 2022 when OpenAI’s chatbot became an instant hit and made AI a household term.
"It feels like we are at a point of one to three years before chatGPT emerged,” Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co Ltd. CEO Wang Xingxing told the World Robots Conference in Beijing on Saturday. "The industry knows which direction we should go and it’s just that no one has materialized that.”
His prediction comes amid a race among Chinese robotics companies to make their products affordable even as real-world applications remain vague, something Wang himself said at the conference.
Companies in China have put human-shaped robots for trials at factories to perform tasks like sorting materials and quality checks. A key challenge for large scale deployment at the moment is lack of good AI models for humanoid robots, Wang said.
Unitree is tapping growing investor and consumer euphoria around China’s prowess in an emergent field without a clear leader yet.
Unitree rolled out its R1 bot for 39,900 yuan (US$5,900) though it has yet to be put into mass production, Wang said. Shenzhen-based Engine AI also said a robot starting at 38,500 yuan is coming soon.
In 2025, Chinese humanoids ran a half-marathon, competed in a kick-boxing tournament and played football. But those events weren’t exactly technological triumphs - most of the half-marathon participants stumbled, fumbled or failed to complete the race. Still, they underscored the country’s ambitions to catch up with and surpass the US in cutting-edge areas.
Unitree’s profile soared after its humanoids were featured at this year’s nationally televised Spring Festival gala. Earlier this week, it released a video of a mechanical dog scaling slopes, spinning on one leg and navigating rocky terrain – sending Chinese robotics shares to new highs. – Bloomberg
