/PRZWT/On September 12, the 2025 Shenzhen International Smart Elderly Care Industry Expo and the first Shenzhen Kangyang Robot Competition of "Industrial Bank Cup" opened, attracting nearly 100 Chinese and foreign companies to compete on the same stage with more than 200 Kangyang robots.
The theme of the competition is "Intelligent Technology Helps Elderly Care Services", guided by the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee Veterans Bureau, Shenzhen Civil Affairs Bureau and other departments, named Industrial Bank, and jointly organized by Shenzhen Elderly Care Service Development Promotion Association and Shenzhen International Smart Elderly Care Industry Expo Organizing Committee. The competition not only shows the latest achievements of the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the elderly care industry, but also highlights Shenzhen's first-mover advantage and strategic depth layout on the smart elderly care track, outlining a clear path of "technology empowers silver hair e****my".
Shenzhen's response under the national strategy
Addressing the Challenge of Aging with Innovative Ecology
At the competition site, a silver-haired "experience officer" is in a smooth conversation with the accompanying robot, and investors and entrepreneurs are enthusiastically discussing the commercialization path of smart elderly care products - behind these scenes is a smart elderly care practice jointly promoted by national policies, industrial layout and city mission.
Faced with the trend of population aging, technological innovation has become the core support of the national strategy. In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "National Medium- and Long-term Plan for Actively Responding to Population Aging", which clearly stated that technological innovation should be taken as the first driving force to actively respond to population aging. In 2024, the General Office of the State Council further issued the "Opinions on Developing a Silver-haired E****my to Improve the Well-being of the elderly", calling for the promotion and application of intelligent devices such as intelligent nursing robots. In 2025, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology listed humanoid robots as the "core competitiveness of the national manufacturing industry," and the development of humanoid
The Yangtze River Delta focuses on medical robots, the Pearl River Delta focuses on service robots, and Chengdu and Chongqing deeply cultivate industrial robots, forming a differentiated regional layout.
In this context, with a complete range of manufacturing categories and strong supporting capabilities, Shenzhen chose "Kangyang Robot" as the entry track, not only responding to the national strategy, but also relying on more than 2,200 local artificial intelligence enterprises and a complete industrial chain to build a full chain support system from R & D to manufacturing, demonstrating its first-mover advantage and strategic depth in the field of silver-haired e****my.
The review revolution from the laboratory to the market
Launch of two-wheel drive products based on market and capital
The competition collection projects cover five categories: intelligent care, intelligent companionship, intelligent monitoring, health promotion, and intelligent entertainment, which are subdivided into 15 categories such as mobile walking assistance, urine care, intelligent bathing assistance, traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy, and chess and card games, which basically cover all aspects of the elderly's daily life. The biggest innovation is to break the traditional science and technology event evaluation model. Shenzhen Evergreen University of the Aging recommended more than 120 "senior experience officers" to the fourth-level branch campus organization, and jointly formed an event evaluation team with 50 "investment and financing institutions".
"We don't care how advanced the technology is, we only care whether it can really solve the actual problems of our elderly," Mr. Zhang, 72, a "senior experience officer," told reporters. "For example, this robot bath must not only be safe and secure, but also protect our privacy and dignity."
Mr. Wang, a representative of the investment institution, pointed out: "We evaluate the project from the market potential, cost control and scale possibility. Many products with excellent technology are difficult to commercialize due to high cost." To solve this pain point, the competition provides multi-dimensional support: the winning projects can be settled in key industrial parks to enjoy rent reduction and policy support; priority is given to being included in the watch list of more than 50 investment institutions; through the "exhibition competition linkage", the procurement and consumer side are directly connected.
This evaluation mechanism and innovation support system have promoted the entry projects to achieve a leap-forward transformation from "expert recognition" to "market recognition", and from "technical champion" to "market champion".
Exhibition and competition linkage to build industrial ecology
From technical items to smart elderly care system solutions
The competition was held concurrently with the 2025 Shenzhen International Smart Elderly Care Industry Expo, forming a unique model of "exhibition-competition linkage", effectively opening up the chain of innovation display, technical exchange and industrial cooperation, and building a collaborative and symbiotic industrial ecology.
In the competition, nearly 100 companies showcased more than 100 products, covering high-end precision robots and lightweight and suitable equipment for the elderly, fully demonstrating that the deep integration of artificial intelligence and robotics is generating a multiplier effect: human-machine interaction is more emotional, autonomous decision-making is more accurate, and health care products are fully upgraded from "functional tools" to "smart partners". Superimposed on Shenzhen's policy support in finance, talent, market and other aspects, as well as the city's own open, inclusive and innovative characteristics, Shenzhen has become an important fertile ground for the iteration of health care robot technology, industrial upgrading and international expansion.
In order to further promote the high-quality development of this field, this year's competition has set up the "Ten Best User Welcome Award", "Ten Best Market Potential Award", "Ten Best Technology Innovation Award", "Ten Best Application Scenario Award", "Ten Best Humanistic Care Award", as well as the "Gold, Silver and Bronze Award" and "Excellent Organization Award". All kinds of awards not only focus on the hard core strength of technological innovation, but also highlight the core orientation of user experience and market demand, aiming to promote the implementation of innovative applications and the in-depth development of industrialization in the field of silver hair e****my in an all-round way.
Through "exhibition-led competition, competition-driven innovation", Shenzhen is systematically building a smart elderly care ecosystem that brings together technology, enterprises, capital and policies, promoting the industry to achieve a major leap from single product innovation to overall system services, from manufacturing output to ecological construction, and setting a new benchmark for innovation, integration, openness and win-win for the national smart elderly care industry.
