JD.com unveiled its robotics strategy at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, committing RMB 10 billion in resources to the sector by 2028. The company plans to help 100 robotics brands each generate more than RMB 1 billion in sales, bringing consumer robots to households in China and worldwide.
Held from August 19 to 23, WRC 2026 brought together companies, researchers and industry experts from around the world. JD.com created a 600-square-metre immersive exhibition space with robotic brands and partners, showcasing its approach to moving robots from product development to large-scale commercial deployment.
Supply chain and lifecycle services
JD.com's first-party retail business has already attracted more than 200 robotics brands and a range of manufacturers of core robot components. The company expects to establish robotics after-sales service capabilities covering more than 100 countries and support the creation of more than 100,000 jobs for robotics service engineers over the next five years.
The company also plans to establish 80 RoboBase facilities offering an integrated service platform covering the entire robotics lifecycle. Services will include product display and delivery, repair and maintenance, research and design, pilot assembly, data collection, manufacturing and product upgrades. The goal is to help robotics companies manage servicing and maintenance at scale while giving customers more reliable after-sales support.
Real-world deployment and training data
JD.com's JoyInside embodied intelligence platform is developing an "AI Home" ecosystem that equips smart devices with AI capabilities. By the end of 2026, more than 10 million devices and robots are expected to be connected to the ecosystem.
The company's cloud business, JD Cloud, plans to collect more than 10 million hours of high-quality training data needed by robotics over the next two years, drawing on real-world scenarios across retail, logistics, healthcare and services. These capabilities are intended to help robots operate reliably outside laboratories, supporting JD.com's ambition to become the "World's Largest Operational Platform for the Physical World."
For professionals tracking AI for Product Development, the scale of JD.com's data collection effort signals a shift: robotics companies are moving from controlled testing environments to messy, real-world conditions, and training data is becoming a competitive asset as valuable as the hardware itself.
Robots already in operations
Robots are already deployed across JD.com operations, including customer assistance, shelf replenishment and coffee preparation in JD MALL stores; warehousing, goods handling, automated sorting and autonomous delivery in logistics; and fault diagnosis, battery replacement and equipment maintenance in robotics servicing. Robots are also being tested in healthcare services, including automated packing in pharmacies and assisted-living services for older people.
JD.com is working with more than 20 robotics brands on standardised battery products covering embodied intelligence robots and wheeled and legged robots. By setting common specifications for battery dimensions, interfaces, communication protocols and safety requirements, the company aims to improve battery safety while reducing operating costs and increasing efficiency.
Robotic coffee sets a Guinness record
On August 16, 7Fresh Coffee, JD.com's freshly made beverage brand, opened its first 24-hour smart robotic shop at Galaxy SOHO in Beijing. At the opening, the shop's automated barista robot produced 202 cups of coffee in one hour, setting a Guinness World Record for the "Most Cups of Coffee Served by a Robot Barista in One Hour."
From grinding beans and extracting espresso to flavour mixing and cup dispensing, the preparation process is automated, with a single drink completed in under 30 seconds in normal operations. Customers order through the JD.com App or in-store self-service screens and can choose coffee strength and sweetness to their preference. The shop integrates JD.com's AI model with embodied AI technology from robotics technology partners, and 7Fresh Coffee applies AI to flavour development and personalised recommendations.
The record demonstrates how automation and AI-supported product development can work together in a consumer-facing setting. For product teams, the relevant detail is the combination of standardised hardware (the robotic arm) with data-driven iteration on recipes and recommendations - the same pattern applies to physical products in categories far beyond coffee.
AI enters the gifting journey
JD.com is also applying AI to consumer shopping experiences. In the week leading up to Qixi Festival, searches on JD.com for jewellery and luxury footwear more than doubled compared with last year, while luxury watch searches rose by more than 200%. The number of brands working with JD.com on major product launches for this year's Qixi Festival is up 150% on last year.
JD.com's mobile, glasses-free 3D shopping solution combines AI with 3D modelling to make products appear to extend beyond the screen. The technology, initially applied to consumer electronics and home appliances, has expanded into beauty. Ahead of Qixi Festival, JD.com partnered with Estée Lauder and La Mer to give customers a richer way to explore potential gifts. Customers can examine product design, packaging and surface texture directly through the JD.com app without glasses, a headset or additional equipment.
JD.com data shows the 3D product technology has increased orders by up to 30% in previous applications. An earlier campaign with SK-II recorded a 60% increase in click-through rates. AI also lets brands generate 3D models from existing product images in as little as ten minutes.
JD Luxury also introduced AI-powered creative content into its Qixi campaign for the first time. Using generative AI, the company created a campaign film under the theme "Luxury Delivered the Next Day," with AI supporting the creative process from script development to visual design.
Why this matters for product development
Three patterns in JD.com's announcements are worth attention. First, the company is treating robotics as a full-lifecycle business - from training data collection to after-sales service networks - rather than a hardware sale. Second, standardisation efforts like the common battery specifications reduce the integration burden for manufacturers, which is often where product timelines stall. Third, the 3D shopping data shows measurable conversion lifts from AI-enhanced product presentation, a finding that applies directly to e-commerce product teams evaluating where to invest in AI features.
For teams building physical products or robotics-enabled services, the AI Agents & Automation tag offers practical resources on implementing these kinds of systems in your own workflows.
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