Yin Qi at WAIC 2026: Agents Enter the Physical World, Driving Three Structural Changes

Yin Qi delivered a keynote titled "When Agents Enter the Physical World" at the WAIC 2026 opening forum. He noted that model capabilities are crossing a critical threshold in 2026: AI has evolved from executing tasks lasting only seconds to working independently for tens of hours. Programming, following natural language, has become a new benchmark for AI capability leaps. Agents will evolve from chat tools into the minimal productivity units capable of perception, decision-making, and execution—future engineers, designers, and researchers will each have their own dedicated agents. Yin Qi proposed that the agent wave will drive three major changes: at the system level, agent capabilities are determined jointly by models and Agentic OS; at the carrier level, computers, phones, cars, and robots will serve as the "bodies" of the same agent across different scenarios, enabling cross-device continuity and collaboration; at the network level, A2A networks will connect humans and agents, granting agents autonomous identity and credit for independent collaboration and transactions. He emphasized that the industry must collectively address governance issues such as identity trust, permission control, and behavior traceability. For developers and device manufacturers building or integrating agent applications, this means building Agentic OS to connect models with data, tools, and interfaces, and designing architectures that support cross-device migration. Meanwhile, A2A networks will give rise to agent identity and credit systems, impacting the deployment of multi-agent systems.