Based on the combined data of China’s industrial enterprise database and customs database from 2000 to 2013, this paper studies the impact of imported industrial robots on firm export sophistication. The study finds that the import of industrial robots has significantly increased the export sophistication of Chinese enterprises. This conclusion holds even after using strict-and wide-caliber measurements of robot imports, controlling for time-varying province and industry characteristics, and considering extreme values. The conclusion remains robust after using the lag term and import tariff as instrumental variables and building a multi-period DID model with the first import of industrial robots as exogenous shock to test for endogeneity. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of industrial robot imports is mainly reflected in non-state-owned enterprises, and exists in both large-scale and small-scale enterprises, capital-intensive and labor-intensive industries, and has a greater impact on large enterprises and labor-intensive industries. Improving the productivity of enterprises and promoting R&D innovation is the mechanism by which the import of industrial robots promotes the export sophistication of enterprises. This paper has implications for promoting the high-quality development of foreign trade. On the one hand, the import of high-end industrial robots should be encouraged, and on the other, the domestic R&D investment of industrial robots and the improvement of supporting measures should be increased.