AI drive key to high-end growth

China's latest efforts to promote large-scale commercial application of artificial intelligence will bolster industrial upgrades and inject strong momentum into high-quality economic growth, creating immense business opportunities for investors amid external uncertainties, said experts and company executives.

Emphasizing that AI has become an important driving force for a new round of scientific and technological revolution, they said the country's superlarge market, technological prowess and thriving innovation ecosystem underpin its capacity to drive the fast-evolving technologies from research labs into the industrial arena.

Their comments came after a State Council executive meeting on Thursday approved a guideline on implementing the "AI Plus" initiative, calling for vigorously advancing the large-scale commercial application of AI and boosting its accelerated popularization and deep integration across various fields of economic and social development.

Su Jian, a professor of the School of Economics at Peking University, said that as a "disruptive" technology, AI will not only reshape production and people's lifestyles, but also serve as the main battlefield for technological competition among the world's major economies.

"AI will penetrate into a wide range of sectors, such as manufacturing and services, restructure production processes and improve efficiency," Su said, highlighting that China's emphasis on the implementation of the "AI Plus" initiative complies with the trend of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and will help the country gain a competitive edge in strategic emerging industries.

He noted that the core of the "AI Plus" initiative lies in integrating technological innovation with large-scale application, while calling for efforts to step up investment in fundamental research, make breakthroughs in crucial technologies, such as core algorithms and high-end computing power, and have a bigger say in formulating global AI governance rules.

"Deeply implementing the 'AI Plus' initiative and strengthening the extensive and in-depth integration of AI with various fields will facilitate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, help foster strategic emerging industries and future-oriented industries, and enable all humanity to share the dividends of AI development," said Xu Zhaoyuan, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council.

Xu said the guideline has clarified the future development path of the AI industry and accurately responded to market concerns, as the country has recognized AI as essential to fostering new quality productive forces and activating new growth drivers.

The State Council meeting also stressed the need to optimize the innovation ecosystem of AI, strengthen the supply of computing power, algorithms and data, increase policy support, reinforce the construction of talent teams and build an open-source system to provide strong support for the AI industry's development.

China's AI sector will make big strides in the next 10 to 15 years, with its market size reaching 1.73 trillion yuan ($239.9 billion) by 2035, accounting for 30.6 percent of the global total, according to market research company CCID Consulting.

Noting that AI technology is witnessing rapid iteration and explosive growth, Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said it is of vital significance to boost its application in diversified scenarios and fields, and accelerate the integration of AI with the real economy.

Zhu emphasized that China's complete industrial system, vast consumer market and abundant industrial application scenarios present unique advantages for the development of AI, a tech frontier in which all major economies are scrambling to establish a beachhead.

"The adoption of AI can reduce production costs, improve the quality of products and optimize resource allocation, thus bringing about huge economic benefits. For instance, AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment technology can elevate the accuracy of diagnosis," he said.

Zhou Hongyi, founder of Chinese internet enterprise 360 Security Group, said he was very inspired by the guideline on boosting the large-scale commercial application of AI. "The move has demonstrated that the country attaches great importance to AI development, and set a clear direction for the AI industry."

The launch of the guideline will promote the adoption and innovation of AI agent technology across a diverse range of sectors, and provide a strong boost to digital transformation across various industries, Zhou said, expecting that more enterprises will engage in the research and development and use of AI agents.

The application of AI in the high-tech manufacturing sector will bring about greater value than its use in terminal products, as AI will significantly enhance the production efficiency and competitiveness of manufacturing, said Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics maker TCL Technology Group Corp.

Zhu Minghao, executive director of the high-end manufacturing research center at Beijing Jiaotong University, said the implementation of the "AI Plus" initiative will bolster the development of large language models, AI agents, intelligent robots and AI chips, propel the high-level application of data and enhance the country's competitiveness in the global AI domain.