On average, everyone walked 100,000 steps! We've summarized 11 answers about the future of AI hard technology.

The most bustling AWE in history has come to an end.

From March 12th to 15th, AWE2026 was held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre and the exhibition area of the Oriental Hub International Business Cooperation Zone. This year, more than 1,200 enterprises participated in AWE, attracting over 200,000 visitors, and the total exhibition area reached 170,000 square meters.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

As an official cooperation media of AWE, the reporting team of Lei Technology at AWE2026 was led by the chief editor Luo Chao, and there were more than 10 members in the on - site reporting team. Over the past four days, Lei Technology's largest - scale exhibition reporting team in history completed the on - site reporting of AWE, which was described as "the most abundant, three - dimensional, and professional" one.

Lei Technology has been sending teams to report on AWE and the four major global technology exhibitions such as CES, MWC, and IFA for many years. As a convention, we will conduct a systematic review and summary of the exhibitions through Q&A after the on - site exploration and reporting.

This time, after each member of the Lei Technology AWE reporting team walked more than 100,000 steps on average, they answered 11 questions about AWE2026 one by one. Here are our answers.

Q1: What new trends in smart home appliances and consumer electronics have been observed?

The biggest impression is that the application of AI technology has fully entered a new stage of competing in the new capabilities of "Agents". All the exhibition halls have transformed into large - scale "OpenClaw farms". Home appliance and consumer electronics enterprises have brought a dazzling array of "AI Agents" applications. While at AWE2025 a year ago, companies were only competing in the integration of basic "AI large models".

At this year's AWE exhibition halls, a magical scene also took place. The booths and experience areas of various robots at home appliance enterprises, such as household service robots, intelligent cleaning robots, and emotional companion robots, were even more popular than most of the embodied intelligent robot enterprises' booths.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

However, the application of robot technology does not have to be presented in a "humanoid" form. Even robot technology itself can, like AI, empower various hardware categories. At the AWE2026 site, Lei Technology also clearly felt the cooling - off of the "humanoid robot" shows.

Consumer electronics and home appliance enterprises are also emphasizing and competing more on the new underlying technology architecture system represented by chips. MOVA's first self - developed dedicated chip M10 for floor - cleaning robots left a deep impression on the Lei Technology reporting team. At the same time, even before its automotive products of Dreame have started mass - production and delivery, it has already launched a cockpit - integrated chip. Chips are the mother of innovation. When more product categories have dedicated chips and more enterprises can self - develop chips, the technology industry will also witness a technological wave driven by the transformation of the underlying architecture.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

Q2: What new scenarios have emerged for the application of AI technology?

At the Haier booth, Lei Technology experienced the Seeker series of "Agent" home appliance products, which are claimed to have the highest intelligent level "L4" in the industry. It is supported by the core technology of the "AI Eye" system that has been upgraded to version 2.0 and is applied to many home appliance categories such as air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines. Take the air conditioner as an example. It can automatically adjust the wind direction and speed according to the distance (the wind has "eyes"), recognize people by sound and match the exclusive temperature (the wind has "ears"), and perceive the environment and optimize dynamically (the wind has a "brain").

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

On the eve of AWE2026, Midea also launched the first "self - evolving" Agent MevoX in the home field, which has high - order reasoning and continuous memory capabilities, and can accurately understand users' intentions and remember their preferences and habits. Based on this, Midea's new smart home appliances can remember relatively complex user instructions, such as "when sleeping, set the bedroom air conditioner to 26 degrees for cooling and the minimum wind, and turn off the lights at the same time", and actively execute this instruction when the scenario recurs, avoiding users from repeating the instructions.

In the competition for the application of cutting - edge AI technologies such as "Agents", all major home appliance manufacturers dare not slack off.

On the eve of AWE, Wang Zhiguo, the CTO of Skyworth, said that Skyworth would be the first home appliance manufacturer to integrate OpenClaw. At the AWE booth, Ecovacs immediately brought its first "butler robot" named Bajie equipped with OpenClaw.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

The staff of Ecovacs told Lei Technology that combined with the "AI Agent" technology framework such as OpenClaw, Bajie can continuously learn in a real - life home environment, acquire skills and understand the world at a faster speed. It can not only achieve the active storage function based on long - term memory but also serve as a "home avatar" to respond to proxy needs remotely.

At the refrigerator booth in the Haier exhibition hall, Lei Technology also saw the Casarte Conductor refrigerator with the "AI cell - level thawing technology". After users put frozen meat into the thawing compartment, this refrigerator will activate the AI remote - sensing system, accurately identify more than 200 types of ingredients, and match the best thawing plan. It only takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete the thawing process.

Image source: Haier

The presence of AI at AWE has never been so strong. The Lei Technology reporting team not only witnessed the release and display of the Qianwen AI Glasses G1 at AWE but also saw the presence of Qianwen AI at more booths. At the KAXFREE booth, Lei Technology noticed an intelligent coffee machine that integrates the "Qianwen & KAXFREE" intelligent large model.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

The application of AI technology is also reflected in the breakthrough of the "ceiling" of traditional technologies and the extension of the "life cycle".

For example, RGB - LED backlight display in the TV category is not a new technology. Corresponding products were launched more than 20 years ago. However, the TV industry has never been able to solve the problem of "simultaneous control of light and color" until Hisense launched the world's first Xinxin AI light - color simultaneous control chip and RGB three - primary - color light - emitting chip.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

Lei Technology believes that AI technology is not only the basic ability to drive the comprehensive evolution of various terminal products but also the "meta - technology" to drive the continuous evolution of underlying technologies such as communication, display, chips, storage, IoT, batteries, and energy. It brings new possibilities for innovation in these technology fields and greatly extends the life cycle of corresponding technologies.

Q3: How to view the hot topic of "robots entering homes" at AWE?

Many people may think that "robots entering homes" mainly refers to "humanoid robots", but that's not the case.

Based on on - site observations by Lei Technology, the vast majority of home appliance enterprises have chosen a more practical solution of "non - humanoid robots" entering homes, that is, the "robotization" of home appliances, rather than "humanoid robots" entering homes.

Under the current technological conditions, when humanoid robots enter homes, they mainly serve as emotional companions or cute pet toys, and their application scenarios are relatively limited. The "robots entering homes" solutions brought by home appliance enterprises are mainly intelligent cleaning robots, wheeled robots, etc., which strengthen the capabilities of "active AI" and even "AI Agents".

For embodied intelligent robots working in home or household scenarios, they don't need legs; wheels are enough. And the sensitivity and refinement of the operation of the arms (robotic arms) and hands (dexterous hands) are becoming the focus of competition among major home appliance manufacturers. Take Haier as an example. It launched a series of household robots targeting three sub - application scenarios of "household service, cleaning, and companionship" at AWE.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

Based on on - site observations by Lei Technology, the walking speed of Haier's wheeled household service robot still has room for improvement. At the same time, it can only carry one item or one type of ingredient at a time, and the time for placing items and ingredients is also relatively long. This may be the result of the "delay" of the cloud - based large model and the "long" multi - modal thinking time.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

The best - performing one is Haier's cleaning robot. Its reaction when sweeping the floor is relatively fast, and it has the potential to compete with the more mainstream "robotic arm" cleaning robots in the future.

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

Q4: What new products are impressive?

At the "Dreame Hall" in Hall E7 of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Lei Technology saw many high - tech products, such as a clothes - folding robot, a civilian - grade space capsule, the eVTOL electric vertical take - off and landing aircraft of Dreame's DREAMFLY, and the grand plan for a space AI computing power platform...

Image source: On - site shooting by Lei Technology at AWE2026

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