The queue to talk to a robot ran longer than the queue for coffee at Melbourne Connect on Friday, as the AI & Robotics Innovation Expo closed out Melbourne Innovation Week 2026, drawing more than 400 attendees throughout the day.
The main attraction was Lumi, a talking, moving and dancing humanoid built by local startup Roboly. From 11am to 3pm, The Launchpad and The Lab filled with founders, researchers, students and politicians circling the same floor of demos and stage pitches.
A packed floor of very different problems
Alongside Lumi, other exhibitors showcased Aurora, a contactless smart sleep monitor, and Vivenex AI's companion robot Emi. Built by psychiatrists, Emi is designed for elderly Australians ageing at home or in isolation, offering fall and accident detection along with a video-call function so family can check in through the robot's screen.
The expo was hosted by AI venture builder AIBUILD and Daisy Liu, founder and CEO of AI hiring platform StarPlan, with NVIDIA as principal sponsor. NVIDIA's Dr Johan Barthelemy, Senior AI Scientist, walked attendees through the underlying technology stack connecting a talking humanoid, a companion robot and a warehouse robot, joined by Dr Susan Zhang, NVIDIA's Head of Startup & VC Partnerships.
Yifei Wang, CEO of AIBUILD and host of the event, said the range of exhibitors was the standout. "What stood out to us most wasn't any single piece of technology, but the sheer diversity of it. We had a robot people were queuing up to talk to and watch dance, right next to a companion robot built for someone's home. Then across the room we had recruitment and HR AI startups Method Recruitment and StarPlan, property management AI ventures such as StrataXcel and AskROMi, and even mind-controlled drones."
"It was such a positive representation of Melbourne's AI sector right now, not just one narrow lane, but future-forward founders solving very different problems with the same underlying momentum and passion behind them," Wang said.
Government attention is growing
The event also drew a heavyweight guest list, including Victoria's Lead Scientist Dr Amanda Caples, City of Melbourne Councillor Gladys Liu, and Victoria's Agent General to the UK and Commissioner to Europe and Israel, Tim Dillon.
Shadow Minister for AI Richard Welch MP took the stage to argue that Victoria's policy settings need to keep pace with the sector's own momentum. His appearance, alongside Dr Caples, Cr Liu and Victorian Government Senior Investment Manager Nick Yan, reflected growing state government engagement with the AI sector.
University of Melbourne's Professor Lihai Zhang covered financial pathways for building an AI business, from raising capital to navigating the startup ecosystem, while Professor Jenny Waycott presented the sociological case for introducing companion robots into homes to address isolation and loneliness.
What SME-relevant tech was on show
Beyond the headline robotics, several exhibitors offered tools with direct small business applications. Stage pitches came from StarPlan and Method Recruitment, both AI hiring and HR platforms, and StrataXcel and AskROMi, an AI chatbot for property and renter management.
Co-host and StarPlan CEO Daisy Liu said the turnout reflected genuine momentum in the local sector. "We had a great turnout for this event, and the level of innovation, intelligence and diversity on display made for a genuinely promising day showcasing Melbourne's technology startup sector. From AI and robotics startups to scale-ups, the expo was the perfect way to close out Melbourne's Innovation Week, and I, along with the team at AIBUILD, was honoured to bring it to life, giving emerging innovators the chance to show what their solutions could mean for the real future of technology adoption in Victoria and Australia."