Humanoid robots will remain little more than “dancing toys” unless they are equipped with truly dexterous hands, underscoring the importance of fine motor control in the next phase of embodied artificial intelligence, said Zhou Chen, chief executive officer of Chinese robotics startup DexRobot.
Speaking at the Talk to the World forum hosted by TMTPost on the sidelines of CES 2026 in Las Vegas from Jan.6 to Jan.8, Zhou said that biological evolution offers a clear lesson for robotics developers.
“Sixty million years of evolution tell us that hands are the foundation of intelligence — hands came before the brain,” Zhou said. “Without dexterous hands, humanoid robots will forever be toys that can dance, but not machines with real utility or ‘soul’.”
Zhou said DexRobot is focusing on what he called the “last millimeter” of AI and hardware integration — the interface between intelligent software and physical interaction with the real world.
“The hand is both the technical bottleneck and the key to unlocking the future,” he said. “It is where perception, decision-making and action come together.”
DexRobot is developing robotic hands and manipulation systems designed to allow humanoid robots to perform complex, delicate and adaptive tasks, ranging from industrial assembly to service and healthcare applications.
Zhou said the company is prepared to invest over very long time horizons to solve the problem.
“We are willing to spend ten years, twenty years or even longer on this,” he said. “This is not a short-term race. It is a foundational challenge for the future of robotics.”
His comments reflect a broader shift in the robotics and AI industry toward embodied intelligence — systems that combine machine learning with physical interaction, enabling robots to operate safely and autonomously in human environments.
At CES 2026, major technology companies including Nvidia, AMD and several robotics startups showcased advances in physical AI, world models and agent-based systems, signaling growing interest in moving AI out of the digital realm and into the physical world.
Zhou said progress in large language models and perception has been rapid, but manipulation remains one of the hardest unsolved problems.
“Without hands that can feel, adapt and act precisely, robots cannot truly understand or change the world around them,” he said.
DexRobot believes breakthroughs in dexterous manipulation will be critical to enabling robots to work alongside humans in factories, homes and hospitals, and to unlocking commercial applications beyond demonstrations and entertainment.
“Only when robots can really use their hands,” Zhou said, “will they stop being performers — and start becoming partners.”
