The 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference is introducing the WAIC City Walk program to link 128 AI experience locations, extending the event's presence from the exhibition center to sites across Shanghai.

WAIC 2025 organizers have crafted three routes: inside the exhibition center, encircling the center, and district visits, providing guests with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the advancements of AI in various aspects of urban life.

The route within the exhibition center is also known as the inner ring. The traditional exhibition center has been transformed into an immersive AI theater for people to learn about the application of AI in daily life. Robots along the route demonstrate precise tasks such as drumming, calligraphy, and egg peeling at Shanghai-themed cultural stations, repair shops, and snack streets, showcasing their mobility, intellect, and interactive capabilities. Visitors can also explore areas where they can engage with augmented reality, virtual reality, and smart terminals.

The AI-supported intangible cultural experience area provides children with the opportunity to design qipao (the traditional Chinese dress for women) and produce teacups. Additionally, there are 30 robot pop-up displays over the course of four days of the concurrent exhibition, showcasing gymnastics, face-changing performances, lion dancing and tai chi.

The area around the exhibition center, known as middle ring, uses Shanghai's smart transport network to host outdoor demonstrations such as electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, drone firefighting and monitoring, and will be held continuously for four days. Level-4 autonomous taxi and unmanned buses also of er real-time experiences of an unmanned shuttle system in the city.

The district visits, also known as the outer ring, extend from the exhibition center to areas such as the Pudong New Area, and Xuhui, Yangpu and Huangpu districts in Shanghai, providing visitors with opportunities to immerse themselves in AI art, AI models, and AI-supported culture and tourism in Shanghai. Together they feature five thematic routes spanning key districts in Shanghai.

With the theme of "AI + smart living", one of the routes allows participants to step into digital shopping platform Meituan's comprehensive command center in Shanghai, the Tencent Shanghai Riverside Avenue Exhibition Hall and the SMC Intelligent Product Experience Center to witness how data and algorithms shape the city's everyday life.

Another route focuses on "AI + intelligent terminals" encouraging visitors to engage with AI robots, interactive terminals, and real-time experimental platforms, with featured stops including Zhangjiang Robot Valley, the Mobile Autonomous Robotic Systems Lab at ShanghaiTech University and Lujiazui Cyber Harbor.

The third route puts emphasis on "AI + urban industry", providing visitors with opportunities to enter production sites and industrial innovation labs so as to observe how AI is transforming productivity. Its stops include the General Robot Research Institute at Shanghai University, Shanghai-Fanuc, and Fuxing Island.

The fourth route centers on the theme of "AI + innovation ecosystem", providing a glimpse into new-generation innovation zones — from AI generated content to digitalnative entrepreneurship spaces, including the China-BRICS Artificial Intelligence Development and Cooperation Center and Model Matrix Community.

The last route, designed to focus on "AI+ city imagery", enables visitors to wander through art museums and urban blocks, experiencing AI in sound, vision, and interactive expression. Featured stops include the North Bund Riverside, Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum, and Yuyuan Garden, a historic and cultural landmark in Shanghai.