Introduction

In March 2026, a unique line formed outside the Tencent building in Shenzhen, with corporate executives, retirees, and even elementary school students waiting for the free installation of OpenClaw. Over 500 devices were installed by more than 40 engineers that day. An AI product manager named Li An seized the opportunity, taking on numerous installation jobs over the weekend, starting at 500 yuan per installation. A 15-year-old American boy earned over $30,000 in three weeks by teaching others how to “raise shrimp”—not the culinary delicacy, but what industry insiders call one of the most disruptive tools of the AI application era: OpenClaw.

Some view it as the next technological revolution following ChatGPT, while others see it as a side hustle opportunity. Many are still waiting to see what it truly is. This article aims to provide answers.

01 From Chatting to Working: The Shift in AI Usage

How do you use AI daily? For most, it involves opening ChatGPT, typing a question, copying the answer, and pasting it into a document. This reflects how 90% of people interact with AI.

ChatGPT, Doubao, and Kimi are essentially “AI chatbots” that can converse and provide solutions but remain in a consultative role, requiring manual execution of tasks.

OpenClaw is changing this dynamic. Unlike chat-based AI, OpenClaw is an open-source AI agent framework. It is not a large model itself but an “AI agent” that can connect large models and gain permissions to operate computers and applications autonomously. It can open browsers, organize files, send and receive emails, and execute complex multi-step tasks, outputting results directly to specified locations.

Luo Fuli, head of the Xiaomi MiMo large model, described OpenClaw at the Zhongguancun Forum as a revolutionary event that expands imagination anytime and anywhere. Zhang Peng, CEO of Zhiyu Huazhang, compared OpenClaw to a “scaffolding” that allows ideas previously limited by coding knowledge to be realized through simple communication today.

The shift from “chatting” to “working” represents a qualitative change in AI assistants. If chatbots teach you how to cook, OpenClaw acts as a digital employee that prepares the meal for you.

02 Why Now? The Collective Push for OpenClaw

The emergence of any technological wave is driven by three forces: technological maturity, capital influx, and policy support. OpenClaw is no exception.

Technological Maturity: OpenClaw restarted development in November 2025, officially named in January 2026, and released versions V3.7 and V3.8 in March, completing a comprehensive restructuring and upgrade of its core architecture. Its ecosystem consists of four modules: Gateway, Agent, Skills, and Memory, forming a complete intelligent execution loop with capabilities like file reading, terminal command execution, and code writing.

Capital Influx: Tech giants have entered the market. Overseas, Nvidia launched NemoClaw, Google integrated models with Workspace, and AWS led the push for OpenClaw’s cloud deployment. Domestically, Tencent Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, Zhiyu AI, MiniMax, and ByteDance have completed full-scenario strategic layouts. A report from China Merchants Securities highlighted OpenClaw as the fastest-growing open-source AI agent application framework globally, with cloud computing services being a clear direction.

Policy Support: The 2026 National Two Sessions included the goal of “building a new form of intelligent economy” in the government work report. The Longgang District of Shenzhen released what netizens dubbed the “AI Lobster Ten Articles” support policy, offering up to 2 million yuan in subsidies to companies contributing key code to the international community. Various regions, including Hefei, Wuxi, and Changshu, have also introduced special support policies.

The combination of technological ignition, capital influx, and policy support means OpenClaw is no longer just a tech circle phenomenon but a systemic opportunity entering the lives of ordinary people.

03 The Gold Rush Logic Behind the “Lobster Craze”: How Ordinary People Can Participate

Whenever a technological trend emerges, two types of people appear: “gold diggers” and “shovel sellers.” In the OpenClaw craze, both paths are already being explored.

Path One: Become a “Shovel Seller” and Earn from Installation and Services

This is currently the lowest barrier to monetization. OpenClaw deployment requires some technical knowledge, leading to a new business in “on-site installation.” Searching for “OpenClaw installation” on platforms like Xianyu and Taobao reveals remote installation prices ranging from 50-100 yuan, with on-site installations priced between 300-800 yuan, with 500 yuan being common. Some programmers have reported earning 260,000 yuan in just a few days through this service.

Li An’s story exemplifies this. As an AI product manager, he works part-time installing OpenClaw in Shenzhen, taking on numerous jobs at a base fee of 500 yuan per installation, with customized requests costing several thousand yuan. The core of this business model is simple: help those who lack technical knowledge but want to use OpenClaw by “paving the way” and profiting from the information and execution gap.

Interestingly, this market is evolving from individual actions to industrialization. Computer repair and network maintenance organizations are beginning to recruit “OpenClaw installation personnel,” forming a community for unified dispatch. This indicates that a complete “shovel industry chain” is taking shape.

Path Two: Become a “Shrimp Farmer” and Let AI Work for You

If you prefer AI to be your “employee” rather than your “business,” then the “shrimp farmer” path may suit you better.

Once OpenClaw is successfully deployed, it can execute various tasks for you around the clock. Here are some real scenarios where it has been successfully implemented:

Scenario One: Full Automation for Self-Media. OpenClaw has built-in skills for Xiaohongshu, automating the entire process from searching for hot topics, generating content, to publishing and replying to comments, achieving stable daily updates with zero human intervention, effectively supporting a complete operational team.

Scenario Two: Office Automation and Data Analysis. It can automatically listen to work group messages, extract data, and input it into Excel, generating report PPTs after calculating month-on-month changes. A task that originally took 2 hours is reduced to 5 minutes.

Scenario Three: Comprehensive Competitor Monitoring. It can regularly scrape updates from Xiaohongshu, V2EX, and various official websites, generating structured analysis reports sent to your WeChat, allowing you to grasp market dynamics instantly.

Wang Lantao, a park manager in Jinan, shared his experience after installing OpenClaw: “For the first two weeks, don’t expect much; just communicate with it to familiarize it with you and vice versa. Gradually, it learns to organize computer files, summarize work reports, and even help me research market pricing for installing lobsters on Xianyu.”

He also took on an interesting client—a driving school owner who wanted to use OpenClaw to scrape popular videos from Douyin and Xiaohongshu to learn filming and promotional techniques. This cross-industry demand is becoming common, indicating that OpenClaw’s application scenarios extend far beyond the tech circle.

Path Three: Become a Course Provider and Turn Experience into Knowledge Products

This monetization path is often overlooked but has the highest potential ceiling. Currently, OpenClaw-related training courses range from 19.9 yuan to 18,900 yuan, a price difference exceeding 950 times. Some top courses claim to have generated over ten million yuan in subscriptions. Participants include university students, entrepreneurs, stay-at-home parents, and even seniors.

However, it is crucial to note that in this market, those who make stable profits are often not the “users of OpenClaw” but rather the “teachers of OpenClaw.” In other words, transforming your experience and knowledge into courses, tutorials, and services may be more profitable than using OpenClaw directly.

64-year-old Lin Hong frequently encounters “lobster” content on short video platforms and considered enrolling in several thousand yuan courses but hesitated due to the price. This widespread “wanting to learn but not knowing where to start” demand is fertile ground for knowledge monetization.

04 More Than Just a Money-Making Tool: OpenClaw is Reshaping Human-AI Relationships

If OpenClaw is viewed merely as a “tool for making money,” its long-term value may be underestimated.

Shen Yang, a dual-appointed professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and School of Artificial Intelligence, stated that OpenClaw is a milestone in AI development: “Previous AIs could talk and work but lacked autonomy; the most important aspect of OpenClaw is that it can proactively work and has a degree of autonomy.”

What does this autonomy mean? It means you can delegate a large number of repetitive, process-oriented tasks to AI and focus your energy on more creative directions. This represents a qualitative change in the human-machine collaboration model from passive execution of commands to proactive task completion.

Assistant Professor Huang Chao from the University of Hong Kong noted at the Zhongguancun Forum that OpenClaw’s integration through instant messaging software facilitates interaction, making it easier to feel like “this is a personal AI.” It is no longer just a tool but a “digital employee” and a “partner.”

05 Bringing a “Lobster” Home: Getting Started Guide

You may wonder, “How do I start?”

There are two main deployment methods for OpenClaw:

Cloud Deployment (Recommended for Beginners): Cloud providers like Alibaba Cloud offer one-click deployment services, completing the process in as little as 10 minutes. This method is suitable for long-term stable operation and multi-device access, with deployment costs starting as low as 9.9 yuan to keep the AI “alive” in the cloud.

Local Deployment: Supports MacOS, Windows 11, and Linux systems, with minimum requirements of 4GB RAM and 20GB storage. Local deployment offers more privacy but requires some technical knowledge.

Regardless of the method, numerous step-by-step guides are available for reference, allowing zero-background users to complete the process. Once deployed, OpenClaw can connect to daily communication tools like WeChat, Feishu, and DingTalk, allowing you to issue commands in natural language.

However, before starting, two points are worth noting:

First, Security Issues. OpenClaw has autonomous execution permissions, which may pose risks of command inducement or information leakage without effective permission control and auditing mechanisms. It is advisable to disable unnecessary public access and improve identity authentication and access control mechanisms during deployment.

Second, Mindset. OpenClaw is not an “instant plug-and-play” tool but an assistant that requires nurturing. Wang Lantao candidly stated, “For the first two weeks, don’t expect much; just communicate with it to familiarize it with you and vice versa.” Viewing OpenClaw as an intern that needs training rather than a magic wand that works out of the box may lead to a more stable experience.

Conclusion

Returning to the initial question: Is OpenClaw the last opportunity for ordinary people to seize the AI dividend?

The answer may not be as simple as “yes” or “no.”

What OpenClaw truly offers is not a guaranteed money-making scheme but a tool that allows ordinary people to access the AI ecosystem in a more cost-effective and flexible manner. You can use it to enhance work efficiency, generate side income, or simply learn new skills.

More importantly, OpenClaw represents a trend—AI is evolving from being able to chat to being able to work. When this evolution occurs, the ability to get on board early and embrace it proactively will determine your position in the next technological cycle.

As Zhang Peng, CEO of Zhiyu Huazhang, stated, OpenClaw provides a possibility: “Building a solid, convenient, and flexible ‘scaffolding’ on the basis of models. Everyone can use the model according to their wishes, and many ideas that were previously limited by ’not knowing how to code’ can now be realized through simple communication.”

Instead of being passively anxious, it is better to take the initiative to try.

After all, that “lobster” that will help you work might be closer than you think.

Note: When deploying and using OpenClaw, please pay attention to data security and permission management. It is recommended to prioritize cloud deployment solutions and find a balance between efficiency and security.