Pepsi's humanoid robot family made its debut at WAIC, and the beverage brand is reshaping the imagination of consumption scenarios.

The significance of technology always lies in the stories of "people".

WAIC has never been just a pure technology exhibition. It's more like a collective preview of future life. When PepsiCo first "invited" a humanoid robot to the conference venue, a signal became clearer - technology is no longer distant. It is breaking through algorithms and models and entering our most daily consumption scenarios.

In July, PepsiCo joined hands with Zhipu Robotics to launch its second humanoid robot, "Pepsi Cool Buddy", at the WAIC exhibition. It is no longer just a tool for "showcasing technological prowess". Instead, it's like an intimate companion that can have emotional exchanges with you at any time and accompany you for photos.

Following the debut of "Pepsi Blue Buddy" in June, PepsiCo's humanoid robot family made its first public appearance as a "twin-buddy combination", conducting a real - world exercise on the brand's future imagination.

This is not just a red - carpet marketing gimmick. From on - site interactions, technology integration, to value storytelling and public welfare practices, PepsiCo is trying to embed humanoid robots, a potential asset in line with the development of the times, into its brand assets that can be perceived. It is opening up a new path from "experience" to "identification" with contemporary consumers.

Robots Step off the Stage, and the Beverage Brand Enters the Vanguard of "Embodied Intelligence"

The combination of "robot + beverage" used to be more like an impromptu collage at technology exhibitions. But at this year's WAIC, PepsiCo has pioneered a new way of playing and an operating model for the organic integration of the beverage industry and emerging technological products.

Against the backdrop of the rapid development of current AI technology, Embodied Intelligence has become a hot new topic. However, few brands can truly incorporate it into an operable business logic. PepsiCo has chosen to deploy humanoid robots at consumer touchpoints open to the public. In essence, it is actively expanding the brand's "contact radius", making technology more visible and the brand more approachable.

The Zhipu Lingxi X2 platform on which "Pepsi Cool Buddy" is based was originally a high - level chip system designed for industrial - grade intelligence, with its strengths lying in emotion recognition and scenario - based interaction capabilities. With its anthropomorphic dialogue, flexible body language, and instant response logic, PepsiCo has made the connection between a beverage brand and a robot shell soft and three - dimensional.

More importantly, this is not a "technological show" divorced from business reality. The WAIC stage is not set up as a future laboratory but a realistic simulation of a "consumption scenario".

"Pepsi Cool Buddy" offering cola to the audience, taking photos and interacting with them, and actively greeting them - these seemingly simple actions have hit the users' real expectations for "the warmth of technology" - curiosity, pleasure, and the ability to participate. In a sense, this is the starting point of "Embodied Intelligence": not only running at the forefront of technology but also landing in real and vivid life scenarios.

PepsiCo's move not only occupies the brand ecological niche of "human - robot interaction" at WAIC but also actually tests the business proposition of "whether robots can play a stable role in brand experience".

Looking back at PepsiCo's actions, from the debut of "Pepsi Blue Buddy" to the appearance of "Pepsi Cool Buddy", PepsiCo is sending a signal: It is promoting the transformation of advanced technologies represented by humanoid robots from "occasional experiences" to "brand interfaces".

PepsiCo is not just telling a story about "how cool the future will be". It is seriously exploring another question: If Embodied Intelligence is stable enough, can a brand turn it into a real medium to reach young people right now?

How Humanoid Robots Become the Concrete Carrier of Brand Assets

In traditional marketing language, brand images are often constructed through celebrity endorsements, advertising narratives, or social media operations. The emergence of "Pepsi Blue Buddy" and "Pepsi Cool Buddy" offers another possibility - giving the brand an expressive carrier that can continuously voice, actively interact, and is highly recognizable.

Behind this is actually the structural challenge brought about by the change in the media paradigm: The rising cost of attention, the convergence of traffic channels, and users' aesthetic fatigue are forcing brands to shift from "passive output" to "active storytelling".

Other brands are trying to get rid of the uncertainty of external endorsers, and building their own "personified expression entities" has become a frequent attempt. Virtual humans, AI anchors, and brand IPs have taken the stage one after another. PepsiCo's choice of humanoid robots with a more future - oriented nature represents a new step in brand asset construction. It is not only an extension of visual recognition but also an upgrade of the interaction mode.

The first - appearing "Pepsi Blue Buddy", as the brand's first humanoid robot image, plays a pioneering role. Starting from a sense of breakthrough and futurism, it has kicked off PepsiCo's cross - border technology narrative.

The emergence of "Pepsi Cool Buddy" focuses more on the sustainability of daily interactions and user communication. With a more youthful language style and behavior responses closer to real - life interaction scenarios, it has stronger companionship attributes and communication extension capabilities. It has upgraded the beverage brand from a one - way information disseminator to a "companion" truly integrated into life, achieving an upgrade in the brand's expression with the support of technology.

Obviously, this is not a one - time act. It breaks the brand's inertia of highly relying on external creators and short - term topics in content output. By using humanoid robots as a medium, it has built a self - owned interactive character that is "always online".

In reality, many humanoid robots have been deployed in application scenarios such as service retail, guiding and greeting, and AI explanations. For example, a large domestic retail group has deployed robots to guide customers to products in stores and remind members of activities. The average interaction time exceeds 1.5 minutes, greatly enhancing customers' favorability.

These early cases show that users' acceptance threshold for humanoid robots is decreasing. Especially among the younger generation, anthropomorphic AI is gradually being regarded as a new form of "pressure - free companionship". It is in this value gap that "Pepsi Cool Buddy" has found its role: It is not a megaphone for the brand to instill information but more like a relaxed, natural, and friendly brand friend in the digital age.

It is foreseeable that "Pepsi Cool Buddy" may gradually break away from the "single - scenario" dependence in the future. Its role is no longer limited to being a photo - taking prop at the exhibition. It also fully demonstrates the potential of humanoid robots to operate stably in diverse consumption scenarios such as supermarkets, campuses, and subway pop - up stores.

This month, PepsiCo will also launch a new robot - shaped can inspired by "Pepsi Cool Buddy", further extending the recognizability of this technological image in mass consumer products. This move indicates that PepsiCo is trying to establish new communication touchpoints in daily drinking scenarios, allowing consumers to feel the warmth and companionship of technology when opening a can.

In the beverage industry, there are almost no precedents for such an attempt to use technology to create a long - term operable interactive character, providing new ideas for the industry to build content and user relationships.

This is the future value fulcrum of brand content in the AI era: It's not just about being seen but also about being someone people are willing to get along with.

Consumption Empathy and Leap under the Dual Drive of "Technology + Emotion"

In this exploration, PepsiCo is not involved in manufacturing robots, but it may have been the first to raise a more fundamental question: When humanoid robots are not yet popular and the technology is still evolving, how can a brand integrate them into real scenarios in advance and turn them into life touchpoints that can be perceived, connected, and remembered?

For a long time, the role of humanoid robots in consumption scenarios has mostly remained at the level of "technology demonstration", and consumers can hardly intuitively perceive their application value. However, PepsiCo is trying to embed them as a "light - touchpoint" into its brand communication strategy - not in a large - scale way but in a moderate and flexible manner to activate users' interest, emotions, and sense of participation.

The emergence of PepsiCo's humanoid robot family marks that PepsiCo is trying to break the traditional narrative and communication logic. Driven by both "technology" and "emotion", it is opening up an interactive form between functional experience and emotional companionship. From exhibition interactions, daily companionship to public welfare education, it carries not only intelligent functional modules but also the natural growth of the brand's "self - personality" when facing Generation Z.

This path also provides a strong inspiration for the industry: Facing emotional saturation and communication fatigue, when "explosive points" are hard to predict, brands should not rely on high - density content. Instead, they should use cutting - edge technology to open up emotional channels, create micro - connections through real life experiences, and let consumers immerse themselves in the brand's warmth through "light experiences".

This path is by no means a superficial attempt. It is much longer and deeper than it seems. Behind this seemingly cross - border attempt of "beverage + technology", PepsiCo is actually conducting an experiment to update the underlying logic of brand communication.

This "light - contact, deep - emotion" communication method is the most difficult but also the most worthwhile ability for brands to develop in the new era. In the information ocean, PepsiCo's humanoid robot family represents a "low - interference, high - memory" contact point between the brand and users: It is not as overbearing as a slogan but can touch you inadvertently.

The value of this "emotional interface" is far greater than a single communication. It can last for a long time, ferment quietly, and eventually form a self - spreading system of consumer word - of - mouth.

For the entire industry, this may not be a huge revolution, but it is quietly changing the marketing dilemma of how a brand is seen, perceived, and remembered in the era.