In the workshops of the Sany truck plant in central China, the whirr of robots pressing and spraying vehicle panels has virtually replaced the chatter of humans. The company is also trying to automate the final and most labour-intensive assembly phase, using humanoids — the frontier of robotics — in anticipation of labour shortages when China’s population ages. “China’s demographic structure is shifting and the population is gradually shrinking — that is an undeniable reality,” says Huang Tie, deputy general manager of Sany Truck Manufacturing, which is based in Changsha, in Hunan province. “For labour-intensive industries, we believe replacing humans with robots is inevitable.”

Full report : As China’s working-age population shrinks, consensus is growing that China must embed embodied AI robots into as many tasks as possible, as soon as possible.