Alibaba and Tencent shift focus from chatbots to embodied AI for robotics

Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent are leading a pivot from generative AI chatbots to embodied AI for robotics, a move UBS identifies as a major growth area. Alibaba's Qwen3.7-Max model, launched last week, includes tool-calling capabilities to control robots for navigation, obstacle avoidance, and task planning. The company also released supporting AI models for robotics, including a gripper agent and a vision-language system. Meanwhile, embodied AI startup Zeroth announced that its M1 humanoid robot is the first mass-produced model to integrate Tencent's OpenClaw AI agent framework, enabling LLMs to translate speech into robotic movements. Wu Bangyi, chief data officer at Tianyu Shuke, noted that past LLM development focused on digital-world problems, implying a shift toward physical applications.