AI has finally learned to do the work on its own! Major companies are rushing to develop OpenClaw

Recently, “shrimp farmers” have been extremely enthusiastic. In order to get their “little lobsters” online sooner, they have lined up in long queues at the entrance of Tencent Tower. Young people with no time even ask their parents to help wait in line for “adoption.” On second-hand platforms like Xianyu and Xiaohongshu, paid services for “door-to-door lobster installation” have appeared, with prices generally ranging from dozens to hundreds of yuan.

OpenClaw, nicknamed “Little Lobster,” is an AI Agent tool. Those eager to install it, commonly called “shrimp farmers,” are users. Despite its young age, OpenClaw has attracted significant attention since its inception, impressing major companies and causing them to “bow to its competition.”

Tencent Cloud provides free one-click deployment through Tencent LightSpeed Cloud Lighthouse. Xiaomi quickly launched a similar mobile product, Xiaomi Miclaw, and began internal testing.

How Powerful is OpenClaw?

Unlike other “capable” AI agents, OpenClaw’s code is 100% generated by AI. All you need to do is set up a cloud server, a large underlying model, and a messaging channel on your personal computer, and this AI agent will serve you.

Xiaomi claims it “turns your phone into an AI tool.” For example, in travel scenarios, ordinary applications only “perceive → act”: receive notifications and display them. Xiaomi Miclaw, however, automatically calls system tools to help check the weather, calculate commute times, set alarms, and prepare other tasks after receiving notifications.

Tencent Cloud describes its functionality as providing “unlimited imagination space.” Instead of asking “what it can do,” ask “what do you want to do.” For example, if you say “help me get a coupon,” it will automatically claim the coupon and place it in your account for use.

Zhu Keli, founder of the New Economy Research Institute, told Zhongxin Jingwei in an exclusive interview, “This is not just simple replacement but a new work mode of ‘human-machine collaboration.’”

Zhu Keli pointed out that OpenClaw breaks the traditional limitation of dialogue-based AI that “only talks but doesn’t act.” It can take over tasks like file organization, email replies, and code writing on a computer, directly addressing efficiency pain points in work and daily life.

Zhu Keli believes that this wave of “shrimp farming fever” is essentially a concentrated explosion of open-source AI agent technology moving from developer circles into the mainstream public view.

Major Tech Companies Are Engaged in an “Ecosystem Defense War”

Zhu Keli sees that the core logic behind large companies deploying OpenClaw is to seize the strategic opportunity of AI’s transition from “dialogue-based interaction” to “system-level execution,” aiming to secure early positions in the future digital ecosystem.

From an industry perspective, AI Agents are key carriers connecting large models with real-world applications, transforming the capabilities of big models into practical, executable actions, no longer limited to language interaction. From a user perspective, these tech giants leverage their technological, financial, and ecological advantages to provide more stable and secure products and services, meeting user needs across all levels—from individual experimentation to enterprise applications.

In terms of competition, Zhu Keli believes that AI Agents, as the core form of next-generation AI, have become a battleground for technological giants. Their deployment is both a technical reserve and an ecological defense.

“This layout is likely to trigger a wave of competition in the AI Agent field, extending from product level to ecological level, focusing on model optimization, scene adaptation, security, and other core capabilities,” he added.

The involvement of giants like Tencent Cloud and Xiaomi not only provides infrastructure and technological support for open-source ecosystems but also accelerates the commercialization of AI technology beyond open source.

Zhu Keli pointed out that OpenClaw supports local private deployment, meeting user demands for data security and privacy. Meanwhile, the cloud deployment services launched by major companies balance convenience for users. This “cloud + edge + device” multi-deployment mode caters to the needs of individuals, enterprises, and governments, greatly expanding AI application scenarios from traditional internet fields to various sectors of the real economy.

Zhu Keli predicts that the rapid rise of OpenClaw will shift AI development from a “big model competition” to a “full-stack capability contest,” from “technology-driven” to “demand-driven,” ultimately accelerating the deep integration of artificial intelligence with the real economy and opening a new chapter in AI industrialization.