Humanoid robots are moving from science fiction into the production line, and one of China’s biggest electronics makers is betting its factories on that shift. Xiaomi’s chief executive is telling investors and workers alike that within five years, humanlike machines will be operating across the company’s plants at meaningful scale, reshaping how everything from smartphones to smart home devices is built.
The claim is bold even by the standards of the current artificial intelligence boom, but it reflects a broader race to automate manufacturing with more flexible, general-purpose machines. If Xiaomi delivers on that timeline, the company will not just tweak its cost structure, it will help define what the next generation of industrial work looks like for people and robots alike.
Xiaomi’s five‑year humanoid bet
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun is not talking about a distant future, he is putting a five year clock on humanoid robots taking over a significant share of factory jobs inside the company. In his vision, these machines will not be confined to pilot lines or demo videos, they will be embedded in real production flows, handling tasks that today require human dexterity and mobility, from moving parts between stations to performing rapid visual checks on finished devices, a shift he has framed as humanoid robots set to take over factory jobs within five years in smart manufacturing environments that can complete full inspection in two seconds, as described in Humanoid.
That timeline is aggressive compared with the incremental way industrial automation usually rolls out, but it fits Xiaomi’s pattern of using fast iteration and tight hardware margins to gain share in crowded markets. By tying the company’s manufacturing roadmap to humanoid deployment, Lei Jun is signaling that he sees these robots not as a side project but as a core lever for competitiveness, a stance echoed in reports that the Xiaomi CEO expects humanoid robots to run smart factories and take over factory jobs within five years, a forecast that aligns with the broader push toward AI driven inspection and logistics in advanced plants, as highlighted in Lei.
From concept to “Factory First” strategy
What makes Lei Jun’s comments more than a flashy keynote line is that Xiaomi is folding humanoids into a broader “Factory First” strategy, treating its own plants as the proving ground for new robotics. Instead of waiting for a mature ecosystem of third party machines, the company is positioning itself as both a user and a developer, with the Xiaomi CEO describing a plan in which humanoids will be working at large scale in our factories within years, a framing that casts the robots as a foundational part of how the company intends to build hardware in the next phase of its growth, as detailed in Factory First.
That approach turns Xiaomi’s manufacturing network into a kind of living lab, where each new robot deployment can be tuned against real throughput, defect rates, and downtime. It also means the company is willing to absorb the early costs and integration headaches that come with any new platform, betting that the learning curve will give it an edge over rivals that stick with traditional industrial arms and conveyor systems, a bet underscored by Lei Jun’s emphasis that humanoids will be working at large scale in our factories within years as part of a strategy to embed them into core manufacturing processes that do not exist yet, as described in Humanoids Will Working.
What “large scale” actually means on a factory floor
When Lei Jun talks about humanoids entering Xiaomi factories at scale within five years, he is not describing a single showcase line tucked away for tours, he is talking about deployment across multiple plants and product categories. In practice, large scale in this context means robots that are not just bolted into one repetitive station but are embedded into core manufacturing processes, able to move between tasks and lines as needed, a vision captured in Xiaomi Community reporting that humanoid robots will enter Xiaomi factories at scale within five years and be embedded into core manufacturing processes, a plan that would touch everything from assembly to packaging, as outlined in Xiaomi Community.
That level of integration would mark a shift from today’s highly specialized industrial robots, which are powerful but rigid, to more general purpose machines that can be reprogrammed as product lines change. For a company like Xiaomi, which refreshes smartphones, wearables, and smart home devices on tight cycles, the ability to redeploy humanoids between lines could reduce downtime and capital waste, a flexibility that becomes more compelling if, as Lei Jun suggests, humanoid robots will enter Xiaomi factories at scale within five years and operate as a key part of the company’s next generation automation strategy, a move that would position Xiaomi as a major player in next generation automation, as described in Xiaomi.
Why Xiaomi is racing toward humanoid automation
Behind the rhetoric about futuristic factories is a straightforward competitive calculation, Xiaomi operates in brutally tight margin markets where shaving a few percentage points off production costs can decide whether a device line survives. By moving early on humanoid robots, the company is trying to lock in long term cost advantages and resilience, with Lei Jun explicitly linking the large scale placement of humanoid robots in all of Xiaomi’s production facilities to the need to maintain long term competitiveness, a connection that shows how central he believes this technology will be to the company’s survival, as reported in Looking.
There is also a strategic branding angle, in a world where every major electronics maker is touting AI features in its products, Xiaomi can differentiate itself by pointing to AI powered robots in its factories as proof that it is not just talking about intelligence at the software layer. If humanoids are visibly working across its plants within five years, as Lei Jun has promised, Xiaomi can argue that it has built an end to end AI stack that runs from design and manufacturing to the devices in consumers’ hands, a narrative that dovetails with his insistence that humanoid robots will start working at factories within five years as a key part of Xiaomi’s ambition to be a major player in next generation automation, a goal he has tied directly to the company’s broader AI and robotics roadmap, as described in Dec.
How humanoids could change factory work
If Xiaomi follows through, the most immediate impact will be on the texture of work inside its plants, not just on headcount. Humanoid robots that can navigate stairs, handle delicate components, and interact with existing tools could take over physically punishing or ergonomically risky tasks, from lifting heavy display panels to repetitive screw fastening, a shift that Lei Jun has framed as humanoid robots taking over factory jobs within five years in smart factories that can perform full inspection in two seconds, a level of speed and consistency that would be difficult for human workers to match over long shifts, as outlined in Humanoid robots.
At the same time, the introduction of humanoids at scale will force a rethinking of roles for human employees, with more emphasis on supervising, maintaining, and programming robots rather than performing every manual step themselves. That transition will not be frictionless, but if Xiaomi invests in retraining and uses humanoids to augment rather than simply replace workers, the company could end up with a more skilled workforce overseeing a more flexible production system, a scenario that aligns with Lei Jun’s broader narrative that humanoid robots will be embedded into core manufacturing processes and deployed across Xiaomi’s production facilities to maintain long term competitiveness, as described in Lei.
The technical hurdles between now and 2030
Turning that vision into reality will require solving a series of hard engineering problems on a tight schedule, from reliable locomotion on cluttered factory floors to safe human robot interaction in crowded assembly areas. Humanoid robots that can operate for full shifts without overheating, navigate narrow aisles, and handle fragile components with consistent precision are still in early deployment, which is why Lei Jun’s pledge that humanoid robots will enter Xiaomi factories at scale within five years and be embedded into core manufacturing processes is as much a challenge to his own R&D teams as it is a message to investors, a challenge captured in the Xiaomi Community description of that five year horizon, as outlined in Humanoid.
Software is just as critical as hardware, the robots will need robust perception systems to recognize parts and tools, as well as adaptive control algorithms to adjust to slight variations in components and fixtures. Integrating those capabilities into a production environment that already runs on tightly choreographed timing and quality metrics is nontrivial, which is why Lei Jun’s emphasis on a “Factory First” strategy, where humanoids will be working at large scale in our factories within years and integrated into processes that do not exist yet, suggests Xiaomi is prepared to redesign parts of its manufacturing flow around what these machines can do rather than simply dropping them into existing stations, as described in Xiaomi CEO.
What this signals for the wider robotics race
Xiaomi’s timeline does not exist in a vacuum, it is part of a broader acceleration in humanoid development as companies from automotive giants to logistics providers look for more adaptable automation. By publicly committing to humanoids taking over factory jobs within five years and to humanoid robots entering Xiaomi factories at scale within five years, Lei Jun is effectively putting Xiaomi in the same conversation as other high profile humanoid efforts, signaling to partners and rivals that the company intends to be a serious player in next generation automation rather than a follower, a stance reflected in reports that a key part of this future will be humanoid robots and that Xiaomi plans to deploy these robots across its production facilities as a major player in next generation automation, as described in Xiaomi confirms.
If Xiaomi succeeds, it will raise expectations for other manufacturers to follow, especially in regions where labor costs are rising and supply chains are under pressure to become more resilient. Even if the company falls short of full scale deployment within five years, the intermediate steps, from pilot lines to mixed human robot teams, will push the industry toward more flexible, AI driven factories, a trajectory that aligns with Lei Jun’s insistence that humanoid robots will start working at factories within five years and that humanoids will be working at large scale in our factories within years as part of a Factory First strategy that treats robotics as central to the future of manufacturing, as outlined in Xiaomi CEO: Humanoids Will Working.
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