Mobile World Congress, otherwise known as MWC, is traditionally focused on mobile products – the clue is in the name. That doesn’t necessarily mean just smartphones, but accessories, mobile carriers and all the tech that goes into powering networks, but still, there was a theme.
But over the past few years, I’ve noticed something else pop up more and more – robots. It started off with the Cyberdog-based models, trotting around the showfloor, but this year, it feels different. More humanoid.
Yes, it seems like MWC 2026 is the year of humanoid robots, and while most are the friendly, wave-at-you kind, there are a few that are a little more… unsettling.
Robots, robots everywhere
As I wandered the hallowed halls of the Fira on the first day of the show, I noticed a few crowds gathering in a random corner of a hall. What was causing so much commotion? A combination of a humanoid robot and a – quite large – robotic dog.
The robotic dog was circling the edges of the crowd, bowing and nodding to people, before charging (much faster than expected, hello Metalhead) across to the other side. The humanoid robot was there as a bit of a hype man, trying to encourage the crowd to clap. It was all very… odd. But, hey, MWC is full of odd concepts, so I carried on walking.
Not five minutes later, as I walked past the China Mobile stand, something else caught my eye. Again, it was a humanoid robot, but this one was focused on cooking and serving. The humanoid bots were seen going through the steps of prepping food, moving it to an oven and serving it.
Of course, it wasn’t actually cooking anything – it was just going through the motions to show that it could – but it was interesting to see at the very least. It shows how far robotics has come in a relatively short period of time, even if the “intelligence” part of the embodied AI is still largely performative.
That wasn’t all. I won’t bore you with the details, but I saw dancing robots at Honor’s stand (performing a surprisingly fluid moonwalk to Imagine Dragons), a robot that could play games like chess with you, and even more humanoid robots wandering through the crowds.
Some even offered (slightly awkward) high fives and handshakes – though, as far as I could tell, the latter were all controlled via a remote controller. The AI uprising isn’t here… just yet.
Not all of them are friendly
That being said, not every robot I saw at MWC felt like a helpful companion.
I’m used to seeing robots that act friendly, with digital smiley faces and waving hands, but I’d never seen a robot that felt quite so aggressive – until I walked past a stand with what I can only describe as a boxing bot.
Unlike other humanoid robots wandering the show, the two boxing robots – fully kitted out with gloves and protection – were working autonomously, with one goal in mind: to punch. While the robots couldn’t get out of the ring, both would come close to the edges and try to spar with you.
Now that sounds quite innocuous on the surface, and telling others about it warranted comments like “oh that sounds cool,” but actually seeing a robot that, essentially, wanted to hit me, was a strange experience.
It felt like a step into the “uncanny valley” of combat sports. While it’s technically impressive to see a machine with the motor precision to spar, there’s something jarring about a piece of hardware designed to simulate physical conflict.
Of course, the boxing robots aren’t actually going to cause you any harm – as far as I know, anyway. It’s just more of a concept of getting robots to help with sparring and training. But, really, it does make you wonder about the trajectory of this tech. How much of a leap is it to get from a training partner to something that could actually cause an injury?
I’m not usually one for tinfoil hats, but seeing the shift from “helpful assistant” to “autonomous sparring partner” makes me a little bit worried about where robots might be going in the next few years.
For a look at some of the friendlier tech at MWC, take a look at our hand-picked selection of the best tech at MWC 2026.
