AI advances spur growth of internet

China's internet sector is gaining robust growth momentum, driven by technological advances in artificial intelligence, which has become a vital force bolstering the country's high-quality economic development and industrial upgrades, said officials, experts and company executives.

Highlighting China's great achievements in the development of internet infrastructure, they said bolstering application of cutting-edge AI in a wider range of sectors is crucial for nurturing new quality productive forces and establishing a modern industrial system.

They made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2025 China Internet Conference, which started on Wednesday in Beijing.

According to the Internet Society of China, the user base of generative AI products has reached 249 million, accounting for 17.7 percent of the total population, which highlights the country's widespread adoption of AI across various sectors.

As the country is advancing the deep integration of digital technologies with the real economy, the popularization rate of digital research and design tools in key industry enterprises now stands at 80.1 percent, significantly improving production efficiency and lowering operational costs of enterprises.

Zhang Yunming, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said more efforts are needed to promote original and disruptive technological innovations, with a focus on key areas such as advanced computing, AI and quantum information.

China will push ahead with the construction of new-type information infrastructure, vigorously upgrade traditional industries, bolster the development of emerging industries and future-oriented industries, and accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces.

Shang Bing, president of the Internet Society of China, emphasized the importance of speeding up the establishment of computing power infrastructure, achieving breakthroughs in crucial technologies, such as 5G-Advanced and 6G, and quantum communication, and leveraging AI technology to promote the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing.

The AI agent — a system that autonomously performs actions by designing workflows using related tools — has gained worldwide attention and witnessed explosive growth since the start of this year. It is more advanced than a chatbot because it not only provides suggestions or answers, but also executes complex tasks across a multitude of industries, delivering tangible results.

Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said AI has contributed to 48 percent of global internet traffic growth, and is driving disruptive changes in network architecture, adding that the development direction of AI will shift from generative AI to AI agents, and the internet sector will enter into the era of AI agents.

China boasts abundant application scenarios, and all industries have the opportunity to be reshaped by AI agents, which can serve as digital partners and digital employees to analyze people's working processes and enhance efficiency, said Zhou Hongyi, founder of Chinese internet enterprise 360 Security Group, estimating the next two years will be a crucial period for the implementation of such technology.

He said currently, large language models have some limitations, while calling for more efforts to create AI agents with different specialties by combining different industries and professional fields. These agents will look like virtual advisors or experts with specialized expertise, he added.