Robotics as a service is a business model where companies use robots through a subscription or pay-as-you-go service instead of buying them outright. This approach lowers upfront costs and makes advanced robotics more accessible to businesses of different sizes. RaaS typically includes hardware, software, maintenance, and updates as part of one service package. It is commonly used in warehouses, logistics, cleaning, security, and manufacturing environments. By shifting robotics to an operational expense, RaaS allows companies to scale automation more flexibly.
JD.com founder Richard Liu said at the APEC China CEO Forum that robots will replace the company’s 700,000 delivery workers “sooner or later”, pairing the prediction with a retraining program called Nirvana that aims to move couriers into robot maintenance and AI training roles before automation arrives.
U.S. industrial robot installations grew 11% year-on-year to 38,000 units in 2025, according to the International Federation of Robotics, with food industry adoption surging 30% as the country climbs to eighth globally in robot density – still roughly ten times behind China’s annual installation pace.
Alibaba has introduced the Qwen Robot Suite, its first family of AI models for physical robotics, comprising three interconnected systems for navigation, manipulation, and world modeling, already in pilot testing with Alibaba Cloud enterprise clients.