Wan AIChef: The Kitchen’s New Brain

Chinese startup wan AIChef unveiled its “Ultra” system at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. The device secured a Red Dot Award for shifting from standard automation to an autonomous “AI Cooking Agent” powered by the proprietary wan AiOS.

The system replaces manual inputs with three core technologies: a 12MP camera for real-time ingredient recognition, the “Zhurong” model trained on 3 million culinary data points, and “Danchao” thermal control with ±3°C precision. It even includes a biometric scanner: a 10-second face scan analyzes user health to generate personalized dietary plans.

Why it matters: This is the practical application of “deskilling” in HoReCa. High-precision hardware combined with AI software allows operators to achieve chef-level consistency without chef-level salaries. This reinforces the future where the kitchen is a digitized node: receiving orders directly, managing inventory automatically, and executing recipes with algorithmic perfection.