Why the topic matters?

World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) has become the premier AI event in China. WAIC 2026 marks the 8th edition and recorded the largest scale to date, and this year’s official theme is “AI Partnership for a Brighter Future”.

Who the content is relevant for?

This report targets readers focusing on the smart terminal and Physical AI ecosystem. It helps readers grasp the latest trend of agentification of intelligent terminals and gain in-depth insights into the evolving data ecosystem and practical deployment progress of humanoid robots.

Key questions addressed

Entering the Agentic era, how the operating systems and smart devices will continue to evolve, competition and cooperation dynamics between model players and hardware OEMs. For Physical AI, the report presents a viewpoint on how data scaling will happen.

Table of Contents

• Forum - AI Terminal Industry Evolution & Coordinated Development
  Entering the Agentic era, traditional terminals evolve into active perception, self-decision agent terminals, and new form factors are emerging
• Forum - From Digital Screens to Embodied AI hosted by HONOR
  HONOR unveiled its Agentic OS upgrade roadmap, transitioning from smartphone-centric business to an Agentic OS-based hardware ecosystem
• Forum – The Horizon of Physical AI Emergence hosted by AGIBOT & Maniformer
  Discussions center on how to break through the data, representation and closed-loop barriers and turn general purpose intelligence into reality. Data scaling is the prerequisite for general embodied intelligence models, and the fusion of human and robot data offers a feasible way to speed up data scaling.
• Key Takeaways of Robotics Exhibition (Hall H3)
  Humanoid robot companies displayed abundant manipulation demos for warehousing logistics, 3C production, retail and smart home scenarios. The focus of humanoid robot applications is shifting from entertainment and performance to industrial deployment. On the supply chain side, more domestic solutions have emerged for core components such as dexterous hands, tactile sensors and joint modules.