At the 2026 Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing earlier this month, new technologies moved closer to real life, with robots, AI agents and digital tools showing how innovation is beginning to really serve people in factories, hospitals, logistics and daily services.
The new technologies and products launch show was one of the busiest parts of the conference. More than 60 companies presented over 80 innovations, most of which are global or national firsts.
For me, the most memorable scene was a robotic guide dog leading a person forward.
Unlike an ordinary quadruped robot, the robot, called Tutu, has a handle on its back that allows visually impaired users to hold on to it. Supported by digital map provider Amap’s self-developed embodied navigation model, massive traffic data and machine vision, Tutu is designed to make complex route decisions: when it sees a pothole ahead, it can decide whether to step over it or go around; when it hears a user’s instruction, it can understand the intention and take the next step.
The moment was small, but it captured a larger message from this year’s conference: advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence are increasingly being tested as a tool that can work, guide, deliver, diagnose, weld, farm and serve.
On the industrial side, Beijing-based Xiaoyubot launched and displayed an embodied intelligent welding robot that can learn a new task in about three minutes before starting work. Priced at about 169,800 yuan ($29,474), such a product may not be as visually dramatic as a humanoid robot, but its value is easier to grasp — it can help workers move away from hot, smoky and repetitive welding environments.
In the logistics area, autonomous urban delivery service provider Neolix’s X1 targeted unmanned delivery over the “last mile”, a familiar bottleneck in urban logistics. Designed to move between indoor and outdoor environments, the autonomous delivery vehicle can navigate sidewalks, office lobbies and elevators to help build a fully unmanned delivery chain.
Healthcare offered another example. A cranial CT agent developed by the China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases can process a complete cranial CT examination and generate a structured draft report covering 94 diseases and 1,232 diagnostic terms. Current clinical data show that for more than 80 percent of routine cases, draft reports generated by the agent require only minor revisions by doctors, or can be used directly without changes.
Through these product launches, I found the meaning of the digital economy becoming more concrete. It is about whether technology can make mobility safer, work less hazardous, logistics more efficient and medical services more accessible.
That may be the more lasting message of this year’s conference. As AI and other digital technologies move deeper into daily life and industrial settings, their value will increasingly be judged not by how futuristic they appear on stage, but by how much they can improve people’s lives and support the real economy.
Tanks to chinadaily.com.cn
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