At the home of Zhou Huilan, a 73 year old elderly person living alone in Chengdu, there is a companion robot worth more than 20000 yuan: a desktop upright body, a screen that can display cartoon expressions, and can remind the elderly to take medicine and measure blood pressure at regular intervals; When moving around at home in daily life, I would greet the elderly proactively; When in danger of falling, the elderly person can also contact their daughter who works in Shenzhen as soon as possible.

At first, Zhou Huilan thought this device was very convenient. My daughter can remotely check the situation at home and make video calls through the accompanying mobile app. Zhou Huilan also occasionally chats with the robot and receives various reminders. My daughter purchased this robot because her mother has high blood pressure, poor legs, and lives alone on the sixth floor without an elevator. If there is an accident, no one will know.

Zhou Huilan's daughter said, "We have also hired a nanny, but we were unable to meet her needs for companionship. At that time, we were thinking about whether we could rely on high technology to solve our caregiving problems while diverting her attention

The demand for intelligent elderly care similar to Zhou Huilan's family continues to rise. In February last year, the world's first international standard for elderly care robots, led by China, was officially released, and 2026 is widely regarded as the "first year of elderly care robots" in the industry. With practical functions such as companionship interaction, rehabilitation medical care, and life care, the intelligent elderly care market led by elderly care robots is rapidly heating up.

The industry's popularity has also attracted a large amount of capital to enter the market. According to investment and financing data from IT Orange and CENTI, in the first quarter of 2026 alone, the domestic embodied intelligence track disclosed over 50 financing deals, totaling about 20 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 60%. Meituan, Ali, Tencent, Xiaomi and other Internet giants, as well as Haier, Vivo and other manufacturing enterprises have also fallen off.

Duan Mingjie, founder of AgeClub, has investigated many pension robot enterprises in the past year. He found that the revenue of some East and South China companies that entered the market around 2022 continued to grow, with their scale climbing from several million yuan to tens of millions of yuan, and some companies' revenue approaching one or two hundred million yuan. At the same time, government procurement, community pilot programs, and related subsidies have also allowed some products that were originally only in exhibition halls to enter the home scene or land in elderly care institutions.

Duan Mingjie said that the industry has completed the exploration period of "0 to 1" and is currently in a stage of increasing revenue and waiting for a turning point in profitability. However, whether considering the procurement costs of B-end institutions or the usage habits of C-end households, elderly care robots still need to go through a longer market validation cycle to break free from the label of "seemingly practical" and achieve "continuous use".

Front of the stage robot

From May 18th to 20th, the 12th China International Elderly Care Service Industry Expo (referred to as the "Expo") was held at the Beijing National Convention Center, with a exhibition hall of over 20000 square meters gathering more than 400 exhibitors.

The crowd attending the exhibition includes street elderly care stations and institutions that purchase equipment in bulk, industrial investment institutions and silver haired industry entrepreneurs who come to inspect research and development projects and patented technologies, as well as ordinary families who come specifically to experience products and consult prices.

In addition to rehabilitation aids that have been popular in the past two years, companion robots with built-in screens, voice communication capabilities, and autonomous mobility have attracted many viewers to stop and experience with their real interactive experience.

Many elderly people gathered in front of the screen to chat with the robot, and a robot called "Xiaoli" responded thoughtfully and thoughtfully, coaxing the elderly people present to be satisfied. Many children who accompanied the elderly to participate in the exhibition also approached to inquire about the functions of fall monitoring products, and some people placed orders on the spot after comparing prices.

This year is also the third time that Senlikang Technology has showcased its "Xiaoli" robot at the Old Expo. This robot adopts a trophy style design, with an interactive screen on the front that can display anthropomorphic expressions, and is equipped with multiple domestic large models.

Gao Ya, Vice General Manager of Senlikang Technology, arranged for staff to conduct on-site demonstrations while answering various questions from visitors regarding pricing, installation, and after-sales service. When the first generation Xiaoli was launched in the second half of 2023, it was found through user feedback that the market preferred a single monitoring device at that time, and the acceptance of integrated elderly care products needed to be improved. Relevant opinions became the core basis for product iteration and upgrading.

But now, Xiaoli can not only monitor falls and identify abnormal situations, but also automatically report to the police when danger occurs. The core focus is on chat companionship, health management, remote care, and gradually expand mild cognitive training, "Gao Ya said.

In the past two years, elegance has been clearly felt, and people's demand for emotional companionship is increasing. In the Fanghuali community of Beijing, an elderly person sends fruits and cookies to Xiaoli every day, reminding her not to go hungry, as if there is an extra member in the family who needs to be taken care of; A couple of old professors who have been living at Beijing Institute of Technology for sixty or seventy years have shared many common topics after purchasing Xiaoli at home.

The two elderly people spend every day at home pondering how to train the robot to do better, "said Gao Ya.

In addition, there has been a significant iteration in the customer base of consulting products. In the past, ordinary consumers rarely paid attention to this type of product. Nowadays, the main customers who come to inquire are mostly middle-aged people in their forties or fifties who need to take care of elderly people at home. At the same time, there are also some financially well-off elderly people who independently learn about the product; Overseas manufacturers such as Singapore and South Korea have also come to consult on localization renovation plans for companion robots.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the annual growth rate of emotional companionship robots has reached 42%, ranking first among all categories in terms of growth rate. However, the difficulty of implementing this category is still high, mainly because the adaptation work of robots equipped with large models is still in the stage of adaptation. Multiple elderly people who have tried various types of elderly care robots have reported that the devices cannot recognize dialects, and users who speak too fast are prone to answering questions that are not correct.

Gaoya said that Senlikang Technology will continue to deeply cultivate an aging friendly intelligent full stack technology system, deeply tackle the integration and connection of hardware carriers, multi-dimensional sensors, vertical domain models, and backend operation and maintenance services, and continuously consolidate the stable guarantee capability of product scale landing through long-term technological accumulation.

Cheer Or Not

On June 9th, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments jointly issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of "Artificial Intelligence+Consumption", proposing to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence+elderly care services. Guide elderly care service institutions to use artificial intelligence technology, layout information management, intelligent security and other technical systems, equip intelligent nursing robots, rehabilitation robots and other products, set up a centralized display area for intelligent elderly care products, and provide safe and intelligent elderly care services.

The industry's popularity has attracted a large influx of capital. Duan Mingjie also found in his research that many elderly care robot companies that entered the market around 2022 have continued to expand their revenue scale, increasing from several million yuan to tens of millions of yuan, and some companies' revenue can reach one or two hundred million yuan.

But the lively exhibition booths and intensive financing do not necessarily mean that robots can truly be "sold".

Duan Mingjie said that in the early days of science and technology innovation enterprises, it is common for financing to exceed revenue. The main problem with elderly care robots is that they have not yet found a stable and sustainable payment scenario. At present, the scale of household orders is limited, and there is a significant gap between industry investment and returns.

Taking B-end customer elderly care institutions as an example, before purchasing equipment, the institution first needs to calculate the cost reduction benefits of robots replacing caregivers: the cost of one caregiver per year is about 80000 to 100000 yuan, and the cost of purchasing a single robot is between 20000 and 30000 yuan. However, at present, the functions and application scenarios of robots are limited, making it difficult to replace most of the caregiving work of most caregivers.

The person in charge of a nursing home in central China introduced to reporters that the current equipment is usually divided into two categories: the first generation is "information technology" equipment, including sleep monitoring mattresses, fall prevention sensors, pagers, and institutional information management systems, which can monitor the status of the elderly in real time, collect data, and are standard equipment for nursing homes; The second type is intelligent devices, covering patrol robots, physiological sign monitoring instruments, companion robots, etc. These products have a higher threshold for landing, and their popularity and frequency of use in elderly care institutions are generally low.

The C-end household market is another dilemma. From the perspective of family usage habits, the robot in Zhou Huilan's home is a typical case: when the elderly speak too fast and mix dialects, the robot is prone to answering irrelevant questions; At night, when the elderly turn over and make noise, and when they wake up at night, robots will come forward to greet and check reminders; If the elderly sit for a long time to rest, the robot will repeatedly push reminders such as exercise and lateral rest, making the elderly feel constantly monitored.

Once, Zhou Huilan's daughter didn't receive remote data synchronized from her device for several days and couldn't contact her mother. She hurriedly drove back to her residence only to find out that the old man had turned off the router in order to save electricity.

Duan Mingjie believes that the industry has completed the exploration period of "0-1" and is currently in a stage of increasing revenue and waiting for a turning point in profitability. However, whether considering the procurement costs of institutions or the usage habits of households, elderly care robots still need to go through a longer market validation cycle to break free from the label of "seemingly practical" and achieve "continuous use".

Gaoya still frequently travels to communities and streets to showcase its products. The cost of personnel, time, and material investment is relatively high, but she is still persevering in pushing forward. In her opinion, many elderly people and children are new to elderly care robots, and they are concerned about product functionality, practical effects, and operational difficulty. These questions are precisely the starting point for polishing products to be more practical and cultivating consumer consensus on their use.

As the aging population continues to deepen, the true explosion of the elderly care robot race may come from a group of "post-60s" and "post-65s" who have purchasing power, are familiar with smart devices, and are willing to pay for quality elderly care.

They have savings and pensions, and their children are generally busy with work and have to bear the pressure of caregiving. When these people become the main users, the market may be easier to open up, "Gao Ya said.

Duan Mingjie suggested that we can learn from the past "home appliances going to the countryside" approach to stimulate the consumption of elderly care robots, issue intelligent elderly care special consumption vouchers to consumers, and include legitimate enterprises in the subsidy scope to reduce consumer procurement costs.