On a recent weekday, around 50 people gathered outside the headquarters of a Chinese mobile Internet company, waiting to get help with installing an artificial intelligence assistant.

The scene in Beijing, China’s capital, was repeated for days at several events and was also seen in the southern technology hub, Shenzhen, in March, as engineers helped crowds trying to set up the popular AI ’agent’ OpenClaw on their laptops.

“I’m worried about falling behind in technological developments,” said Sun Lei, a 41-year-old human resources manager at the Cheetah event. She said she hoped the tool might help her source and screen résumé across various recruitment platforms.