China Gets a Jump on Trying AI Everywhere From Cars to Birdbaths

Amid the keynote speeches and product unveilings at CES this month, the Las Vegas electronics trade show delivered an important geopolitical message: Chinese companies are rapidly embedding artificial intelligence into a sprawling range of real-world products, taking the AI rivalry between Washington and Beijing from chatbots and image generators into the realm of robots, automobiles and consumer products.

Chinese players were omnipresent with quirky, AI-infused offerings in Nevada. A startup called Glyde showed off a smart hair clipper promising to deliver perfect fade cuts without a trip to the barber. Another unveiled an AI bird feeder that can take closeups of visiting avians. SwitchBot, one of many companies based in the manufacturing hub of Shenzhen, offered up its Kata stress toy, a cuddly companion with flappy arms that is supposed to read user emotions and respond with appropriate happiness, sadness or jealousy.

It wasn’t all playtime, though. SZ DJI Technology Co., the leading maker of consumer drones and one of Shenzhen’s best-known tech brands, demonstrated its latest AI-powered drones. Appotronics Corp. demonstrated gadgets combining AI with smart laser display technology, bringing the novel tech into automotive solutions and beauty products targeting issues such as hair loss.

The scene, evocative of a decade earlier when CES was overrun with supposedly smart versions of quotidian items like toothbrushes, showed China experimenting fast and leveraging its position as the leading electronics manufacturer in the world. No company or nation has yet gained control over the developing sector of so-called physical AI, and China brought AI-enhanced glasses, autonomous house cleaners and robotic elderly helpers to the conference to demonstrate all the problems it’s trying to solve.

“Chinese firms are advancing really fast in tangible AI products,” said Tigress Li, co-founder of the Shanghai-based BreakReal, creator of an AI bar bot. “The progress is fueled by a solid hardware-software synergy in the manufacturing supply chain.”

Yi Li, founder and chief executive officer of Appotronics, said Chinese companies have learned how to move quickly from concepts through prototypes to market-ready products. His company’s hometown of Shenzhen has established supply chains for components, screens, batteries and chips that allow companies to refine products at a pace few Western peers can match, he added.

China's AI hardware market, spanning both consumer products and industrial robotics, is forecast to grow by 18% annually through 2030, from a sizable $153 billion in 2025, according to market research firm Beijing Runto Technology. This includes devices like home appliances and wearable gadgets but excludes smartphones and cars.

Plenty of US companies showed off AI products too. Caterpillar Inc., maker of iconic yellow tractors, demonstrated an AI assistant that could help farmers and construction workers — sparking a rally that pushed its stock to an all-time high. General Electric Co. unveiled a new refrigerator model that scans bar codes to keep track of inventory and uses a live camera to reduce food waste. Danish toymaker Lego Group debuted a set of Star Wars bricks with embedded processors, sensors and speakers to add interactive elements.

By far, the most attention-grabbing physical AI products at the show were the humanoid and quadruped robots from Chinese manufacturers like Unitree Robotics and Engine AI, demonstrating both real-time human interactions and industrial applications.

The eeriest AI came from another Chinese startup, Lepro, which displayed a desktop with an 8-inch curved OLED screen hosting an AI “soulmate” called Ami. Dual front-facing cameras constantly tracked eye movements while a rear camera anchored the avatar within the user’s real-time environment, giving it a physical feel. Razer Inc.’s Project Ava followed a similar path, creating an animated character inside a glass tube, effectively a holographic avatar for the artificial chatbot.

Many of the products were spectacles that may not progress beyond niche, crowdfunded gizmos, and only a few may ever convert into commercial success. But Las Vegas made it clear how China’s prolific testbed for electronics of all types will help it compete in the AI hardware race.

“Whichever country makes AI products that you can hold, deploy, be entertained or charmed by, that could be the ultimate form of computational dominance,” said Neil Shah, a co-founder of Counterpoint Research who returned to CES for his 15th visit this year.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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