The rental cost for humanoid robots has witnessed a substantial decrease, plummeting from a daily rate ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of yuan to merely a few hundred yuan. Within a span of less than a year, these robots have transitioned from being mere symbols of cutting-edge technology to becoming essential productivity tools that must demonstrate tangible value. A comparison between National Day 2026 and National Day 2025 reveals a qualitative leap in the humanoid robot sector. These robots have evolved from being featured in isolated performances and interactive displays to becoming revenue-generating staff members who work in scheduled shifts and undertake comprehensive commercial closed-loop tasks. This evolution is marked by notable differences in deployment scale, functional sophistication, and pricing strategies.
This transformation has been propelled by advancements in supply chain maturity and economies of scale, resulting in reduced hardware costs. Additionally, there have been significant enhancements in the performance of embodied AI large models. At present, cost substitution has been realized in certain scenarios, leading to the generation of initial positive cash flow. The industry is now crossing the threshold from demonstration to full-fledged commercialization. Nevertheless, achieving normalized operations in settings with low customer traffic continues to pose challenges in terms of cost coverage.
Looking ahead, industrial settings are poised to become the primary arena for the large-scale commercialization of humanoid robots. Current endeavors in ToC (Consumer-to-Consumer) scenarios are laying the groundwork for the early-stage implementation of this technology. The industry will only reach a true developmental milestone when robots can consistently outperform their human counterparts in the same roles, achieving stable unit output, and can be deployed regularly with minimal maintenance costs.