On the 4th (local time), the day after the opening of the world's largest information and communications technology (ICT) exhibition, 'Mobile World Congress 2025 (MWC25)', people gathered around a woman with short hair wearing a black one-piece dress and a red cardigan dancing on the stage of an exhibition hall in Barcelona, Spain. Upon closer inspection, it was 'Amira', a humanoid robot developed by e& Group, the largest telecommunications company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in collaboration with British robotics company Engineered Arts. When a visitor approached her and asked her a question, Amira made eye contact and continued the conversation without hesitation with various facial expressions and hand gestures. When asked, "What color do you like?", she answered "red" and then asked again what color she likes.

Recently, as artificial intelligence (AI) technology has developed and 'physical AI' that is installed in real hardware such as humanoid robots and self-driving cars has been attracting attention, various robotics technologies including Amira were introduced at this year's MWC25. According to market research firm Databridge Markets, the global humanoid robot market size is expected to grow rapidly by an average of 38% per year, from 1.73 billion USD in 2023 to 23.2 billion USD in 2031.

The humanoid robot 'Alice' also greeted visitors at the exhibition hall of domestic company LG Uplus. Alice, a bipedal walking robot developed by domestic humanoid robot startup A-Robot, was equipped with LG Uplus' AI technology 'Ixi'. It asked visitors questions and if they answered correctly, it picked up a drink and gave it to them as a gift. LG Uplus and Alice plan to continue their collaboration.

Robots moving around the exhibition space were also captured here and there. The humanoid 'G1' made by Chinese robot company Unitree walked around and waved to visitors or asked to shake their hands. The screen-attached general-purpose assistive robot 'Temi' made by global robot company Robocore also used AI to determine its own destination and moved. If Temi is equipped with a blood pressure monitor and sensors, it can record patients' body temperature and facial expressions in hospitals.

Robot technologies specialized for specific industries also received attention. 'StepUp', developed by domestic company FRT Robotics, is a wearable robot (exoskeleton) that protects the lower back muscles of workers who do repetitive tasks that strain the lower back. It helps reduce fatigue from repetitive tasks such as lifting and putting down heavy loads or bending over to harvest crops, and helps work stably. FRT Robotics CEO Jang Jae-ho said, "Working intelligence technology is an essential element in installing AI in humanoid robots to make them work like people," and "We are also putting effort into securing data to develop this."

'Watchbot', launched by Spanish company Star Robotics, is equipped with generative AI and is specialized in identifying risk factors that occur in various places such as industrial site problems such as fires and gas leaks, as well as intrusions into security facilities and riots. 'Inrobics Rehab', a rehabilitation support robot solution that has received European medical device certification, scans the body data of patients with motor, cognitive, and social disabilities through a 3D sensor and the AI analyzes it to suggest optimized exercise movements.

At this year’s MWC25, various visions for extended reality (XR) were also presented. Ericsson, a global mobile communications equipment manufacturer, combined augmented reality (AR) technology with its communications network to provide visitors with an experience similar to actually touring a Nissan vehicle showroom. Domestic edtech company Artigenspace presented ‘Arti’, which combined AR and AI with educational content.