AI street stalls: The next big thing in the civilian economy
Written by | Gong Zheng
Edited by | Uncle Lian
Artificial intelligence always has an "aloof and superior" filter. However, the most appealing ability of a good technology lies precisely in its ability to weave a rich tapestry of human warmth.
Currently, AI is transforming roadside stalls in China. From AI perfume blending, AI bracelet matching, AI chess, AI billiards to AI haircuts, a series of down - to - earth applications are emerging. Whether these AI roadside stalls can last in the long run remains unknown, but they have undoubtedly added a unique touch of human warmth to the streets.
#01
AI Sweeps Through Roadside Stalls
"Want to know what kind of perfume suits you best? Come, scan the QR code."
In front of a small market counter at the Beijing National Convention Center, a long queue has formed. People are waiting for the young man at the end of the queue to squeeze drops of perfume from a dozen bottles for perfume blending.
On the other side of the queue, people are taking out their phones to scan the QR code and enter the mini - program. All you need to do is enter your name and MBTI personality, and a "perfume formula" exclusive to you will be generated. There is a large signboard beside it: AI Perfume Blending.
A young woman scanned the code and got her perfume formula. While waiting in the queue for the perfume to be made, she was curious, "What on earth does my exclusive perfume smell like?"
The market stall owner was sitting beside the stall. She introduced that her traditional perfume business was quite large in the Yangtze River Delta region, but she had always been thinking about how to make her perfume more "personalized". "I feel that AI can just play a role here," the owner said.
Actually, there is nothing too profound behind the mini - program that the public scans. The owner embedded a Wenxin large - model in the mini - program. After people enter their names and MBTIs, the large - model can give relevant answers.
"Whether it's accurate or not, at least it's much more interesting psychologically than just buying a bottle of perfume directly. If you DIY perfume blending, it's both confusing and time - consuming," said the young woman in the queue.
The stall owner said, "Currently, AI perfume blending is only used at some market exhibitions as a trial. The traditional business is still selling on e - commerce platforms. But the queue is always quite long every time, and it seems that the customers' demand has been initially verified."
Actually, apart from AI perfume blending, if you observe the streets carefully, you can find that AI is slowly changing the street scenery in China.
In the Panjiayuan Antique Market in Beijing, "AI Bracelets" are selling like hotcakes.
Some regulars in the market have started to use DeepSeek to help them match a traditional Chinese bracelet while strolling around the market. All you need to do is enter your budget and tell it that "red sandalwood is used as the main string", and the large - model can generate a table, telling you how to match and what the market price is.
This is not surprising. What's surprising is that some vendors also want to ride on the wave of AI. The self - media blogger Fengge saw at a stall in Panjiayuan a sign that read, "The bracelet beads are ordinary, but the AI technology is extraordinary."
Each bracelet displayed by the stall owner has a special bead with a chip embedded in it. Visitors only need to use their mobile phone NFC (Near Field Communication) to touch it, and it can send you your luck for the day based on your name and location.
If these are no longer strange to you, AI Billiards and AI Chess are a bit more "technologically advanced".
In Guangdong, a small business model called "Pioneer of AI Self - service Billiards" has been widely promoted by the bosses behind it.
The so - called "AI Billiards" means installing a projector + camera above the billiard table. Through algorithm recognition, the "ball - into - hole" route is projected onto the billiard table. Beginners can practice their billiards basics along this route.
Picture | AI has drawn the ball - into - hole route for you
If you are no longer in the age of playing billiards and have entered the "chess - playing stage", stop interfering in the street - side chess games of the old men. Also in Guangdong, a South Korean self - media blogger found that "AI Chess" has been set up on the street.
An artificial intelligence in the form of a robotic arm plays chess with you. It costs 5 yuan per game for adults and is free for children. It is said that AI Gomoku has also emerged, which might be useful for parent - child families.
In addition, there is AI Haircut. With the newly launched large - model Qianwen, users only need to click on "video call", and Qianwen can recommend a hairstyle based on your head shape. Before the launch of Qianwen, some barbershops had already conducted small - scale trials. Finally, you don't have to listen to the barber's random cuts.
#02
Behind the Street Stalls: AI's "Breakthrough in Application Scenarios"
Is it easy to start a street - stall business with AI elements?
The owner of the AI bracelet stall in Panjiayuan said that more than 10,000 AI bracelets with NFC function have been sold, presumably riding on the wave of the bracelet trend in recent years.
Playing AI chess only costs 5 yuan per game. The per - customer price is not high, and it is particularly dependent on the frequency of street - side chess games and how long people can maintain their freshness towards it.
According to public information, AI billiards start at 40 - 50 yuan per hour, which is much more expensive than traditional billiards. In some places, traditional billiards now cost as low as 9.9 yuan per hour, and the two types of billiard tables have to compete in the same market.
Given this level of revenue, what kind of investment does an ordinary entrepreneur with no technical background need to make?
Based on the market situation, the following business models have emerged for AI street stalls.
The first is the AI product franchise model. Startup cost: Hundreds of thousands of yuan and above.
From a macro perspective, China is no longer short of basic large - models with parameters often exceeding 100 billion. Thanks to this infrastructure, they have provided a fertile ground for small and medium - sized vertical models, allowing many new terminal business forms to flourish.
AI billiards is backed by an AI startup company in Guangdong. The company has developed an "intelligent billiard table analysis system", which can be called a "billiard large - model".
The specific principle is to capture the movement trajectory of the billiard balls through cameras and sensors, and then use the AI large - model for calculation to generate a "solution for the ball to go into the hole".
Some KTVs have developed a system that can be called a "singing large - model". By analyzing the vocal cords of many singers, a model is formed. Through evaluation, scoring and battles, the game rules in traditional KTV rooms are changed.
For these vertical large - models, technology developers have built the technical background and then packaged consumer products such as "AI KTV" or "AI intelligent billiard table" at the terminal to develop chains. Entrepreneurs need to enter the market through franchising.
The entry threshold starts with the common franchise fee of hundreds of thousands of yuan, which is relatively high. Whether you can make money depends on factors such as geographical location, business management ability, and how long consumers can maintain their freshness.
The second is the purchase of hardware + retail. Startup cost: Less than ten thousand yuan.
For example, for AI chess, the AI intelligent hardware - the AI chess robot is already on sale on e - commerce platforms. The price of a single AI chess robot ranges from 500 to more than 2,000 yuan. This means that the upfront investment for street - stall entrepreneurs is controllable, which is a low - cost startup. However, whether you can make money still depends on whether the passers - by on the street can maintain their freshness and stick around.
Picture | AI Chess Robot
The third is the self - development model for entrepreneurs. The emergence of a large number of fool - proof AI development tools has supported entrepreneurs with no technical background, reducing startup costs and increasing efficiency. Startup cost: Relatively low, eliminating the need for upfront development.
AI is a productivity tool, generally divided into two types. One type serves professional developers, such as Tongyi Lingma launched by Alibaba and Claude Code launched by Anthropic. The other type provides AI productivity tools for ordinary people with no coding background, such as Coze launched by ByteDance.
For example, AI perfume blending, which seems to be just a mini - program, belongs to fool - proof development.
In the past, if you hired a professional developer to create a template, the annual fee could be as low as a few thousand yuan or as high as 20,000 yuan. Customized development would cost around 20,000 - 30,000 yuan. After the mini - program is created, if you want to provide personalized answers to users, the development difficulty and cost will increase.
The person in charge of the AI perfume - blending stall found a fool - proof AI development program in the market for development. She said that she doesn't know how to write code at all. She just described her requirements in plain language, and the Miaoda AI application tool was able to create a mini - program for her. Moreover, through the natural language model, it can generate personalized answers, not only realizing her creative idea but also greatly reducing the development cost.
There are many such application tools. From JD Cloud's JoyBuilder, ByteDance's Coze to Alibaba's Dify, they are all representatives in this field. They have greatly reduced the upfront cost of starting an AI street - stall business, allowing entrepreneurs to start using them right away. This is also a technological application route that many large companies are currently pursuing.
#03
Agent Infra: The Infrastructure Behind the Street - Stall Economy
The street - stall economy in the AI era emphasizes the experience.
When playing chess with AI, will it move randomly without following the rules? Will it stop working midway? Will AI haircut generate a strange hairstyle? This requires AI technology to reduce hallucinations and maintain system stability.
This involves the deep - seated infrastructure of AI.
From the perspective of industry development, the emergence of various AI street stalls is due to the fact that in the past three years, China has rapidly completed the infrastructure construction of large - scale AI models. Now, it is entering the next stage of AI - AI Agent Infrastructure (Agent Infra) and the era of intelligent agent applications.
Take the "Miaoda" application tool used in AI perfume blending as an example. It seems like a chaotic AI application, and it's difficult for the public to understand how it can create a mini - program related to AI perfume blending just based on the entrepreneur's description. In fact, behind this program, multiple agents are at work.
It is understood that more than a dozen intelligent agents are involved in the cooperation behind this AI development tool, including requirement analysis agents, development execution agents, testing and optimization agents, etc. It is the cooperation of these intelligent agents that enables the rapid construction of the personalized AI mini - program for AI perfume blending without the participation of professional programmers.
Another example is the popular digital - human live - streaming sales, which is a kind of "grass - roots economy". Anyone can model a digital human at a negligible cost just by saying a few words and making a few gestures in front of a fruit orchard or farmland, and then conduct "automated" daily live - streaming.
Behind this digital human, there are also many intelligent agents at work, such as warm - up agents, interaction agents, field - control agents, and operation agents. It's as if the agents are doing the work of real - life anchors and field - control staff.
It can be said that without the development of intelligent agents, it would be difficult to see the flourishing AI - enabled street - stall economy.
It is worth noting that in order to make these intelligent agents run more smoothly, major companies have been making efforts in Agent infrastructure, that is, developing Agent Infra this year.
Alibaba Cloud has launched Wuying AgentBay, and Tencent Cloud has launched Agent Runtime. The purpose of these infrastructures is to make the operation of agents more stable and cost - effective. Their construction purposes are different from those of AI infrastructure, which provides computing power and algorithms. Instead, they aim to make the operation of agents more stable.
Without these Agent Infra, the AI - enabled street - stall economy in China might easily fall apart on the streets.
Generally speaking, when AI empowers street stalls, the essence of this business lies not in "high - tech domination" but in "quiet integration". As a netizen put it well, the most vibrant form of AI is to quietly offer a more suitable "new abacus" to the street - stall uncles and aunts.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Zhengu Research Institute” (ID: zhengulab), written by Gong Zheng, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.