On October 16, exhibition halls at the Dongguan Songshan Lake Exhibition & Performance Center featured three themed zones for embodied intelligence, smart mobility and AI-powered wearables, displaying a wide array of AI hardware products. Purchasers from across the globe wandered through the displays, exchanging views and business cards with manufacturers in Chinese or English.
Such face-to-face sourcing and business talks between suppliers and buyers unfolded on the day of the 2026 Dongguan Digital Trade Conference & Dongguan AI Smart Products Global Supply-Demand Matching Conference.
"The products here are far more mature than I expected," said Ashraf Li, a purchaser from Lebanon who has lived in Dongguan's Songshan Lake for five years. Rather than general-purpose robots, he focused on medical-oriented solutions at the event. "Truly mature, reliable and reassuring robots are still hard to come by, yet medical AI robots will represent a promising investment once the technology matures," he noted.
"Dongguan is a global manufacturing hub with unmatched factory density and competitive pricing, granting direct access to manufacturers. Nevertheless, international buyers are more familiar with Guangzhou and Yiwu, while Dongguan lacks sufficient spotlight and brand exposure." Ashraf Li regularly produces short videos to introduce Dongguan's factories to overseas contacts. "Setting up operations in Dongguan now means growing alongside the city."
Turkish purchaser Nuri Erdem Ersoy keeps his sights firmly on industrial-grade solutions. As the Founder and Managing Director of Ersuo Industrial Solutions, he has long served markets across Türkiye and the Middle East. In his view, the Middle East is quick to embrace AI trends, outpacing Europe and ranking second only to China and the United States. "Current applications are mostly software-driven. Smart glasses and smart home devices are just emerging; large-scale hardware roll-outs are yet to happen but are on the horizon."
He is in search of equipment for predictive maintenance, visual monitoring of production data and dark factory deployment. "These technologies will fundamentally reshape industrial production across the Middle East." By the end of the one-day event, he had shortlisted several promising Dongguan-based enterprises. "I believe mutually beneficial cooperation is highly likely to be reached."
Pattern, a newcomer to Dongguan's procurement conference, partners with Chinese brands via procurement-sales models to distribute goods on over 70 global e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Walmart and TikTok.
Author: Li Jingru
Photo: Nanfang Plus
