Chengdu’s famous shopping artery, Chunxi Road, has been transformed into a testing ground for consumer-facing artificial intelligence and robotics during the Lunar New Year. From February 14 to 23, Jinjiang District staged a “New Year AI Black‑Tech Party” showcasing more than 20 newly released consumer tech products — from Z•Pilot and a stringless guitar to an AI smart cooking machine — and staging immersive, hands‑on demonstrations designed to make advanced technologies feel everyday.
Organisers emphasised experience over static display: interactive booths, a robot pop‑up store and live demonstrations aim to turn curiosity into purchase. The pop‑up complements Roboworld Phase I, a “embodied intelligence” robot marketplace that opened last December on Jinxing Road and now houses hundreds of robots across diverse scenarios. Together, these offline venues create a contiguous path from encounter and trial to transaction and adoption.
Local government officials present the initiative as part of a deliberate “first‑release economy” strategy. By positioning Chunxi Road as the consumer core and a nearby innovation district — branded in the campaign as “First‑Release Chunxi Road + Tech Innovation Bailu Bay” — Jinjiang hopes to accelerate the conversion of laboratory prototypes into marketable products, and to knit together research, launch, retail and headquarters functions into a single commercial ecosystem.
The event underlines a broader trend in China: municipalities are using high‑traffic retail spaces and festival seasons to catalyse technology diffusion. For startups and established vendors alike, the payoff is immediate feedback and testing at scale: prospective buyers can try devices in situ, retailers gather consumer evidence and innovators shorten the loop from demonstration to monetisation. By staging launches at a major tourist and shopping hub during peak travel days, organisers also amplify media attention and visitor footfall.
The model carries both opportunities and frictions. It gives domestic brands an efficient route to scale and a rich trove of consumer behaviour data; it helps cities stitch industrial policy to consumption. But it also raises practical questions about product safety, interoperability, and data governance when AI and robots move out of labs and into crowded public spaces. How authorities regulate these interactions, and whether consumers retain control over their data, will determine whether novelty becomes sustained market demand.
Jinjiang says it will press on: improving mechanisms that turn innovation into sales, optimising business conditions and rolling out further supportive policies to attract more first‑release launches. If successful, the experiment will be more than a local festival attraction — it will be a template for how Chinese cities accelerate commercialisation of frontier tech by embedding it in everyday urban life and consumer rituals.