DALIAN, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Young entrepreneurs who see themselves as a generational bridge between emerging technologies and real-world applications are making their voices heard at Summer Davos, a gathering where seasoned policymakers, scholars and business leaders typically take center stage.
For many digital natives attending this year's annual meeting, running from Tuesday to Thursday in northeast China's port city Dalian, innovation remains key to navigating challenges and opportunities of the AI era, with youth being front and center in this process.
"AI is exciting in the sense that a lot of the previous 'grunt work' can now be leapfrogged," said participant Samuel Han, a 28-year-old Canadian researcher based in Central Asia and founder of an education technology startup. "That means we can now work on more interesting problems, innovate and find room for specialization beyond what was possible before."
Signs of this transformation are already emerging. For He Qiqing, a 28-year-old founder of the Global AI Governance and Workforce Transformation Policy Observatory, the mushrooming of one-person companies (OPCs) in China offers a glimpse of how AI is reshaping innovation and entrepreneurship.
Centered on a "one person plus AI" model, OPCs enable individuals to operate an entire commercial loop independently with AI support. According to a nationwide industry report, China had more than 16 million OPCs as of June 2025, while new registrations surged 47 percent year on year in the first half of that year. Most founders were born in the 1990s and 2000s.
The rapid rise of OPCs across China demonstrates how new ideas can quickly gain traction, a trend that aligns well with the theme of this year's summit, "Innovating at Scale."
For some young entrepreneurs, the achievements of the world's second-largest economy are the result of the country's supportive policies, a growing public willingness to embrace change, and a vibrant innovation ecosystem.
In August 2025, China issued guidelines for the "AI Plus" initiative, directing innovation resources toward sectors with strong employment potential. A similar emphasis was reiterated in the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) released in March this year, which calls for enhancing AI's role in job creation and advancing nationwide efforts to improve digital literacy and skills.
Beyond favorable top-level design, Han, who attended elementary school in east China's Suzhou City from 2004 to 2009, also noted a shift in mindset. He observed that Chinese citizens today appear more ambition-driven in their approach to innovation, compared with a more market-driven orientation in the past. This shift, he suggested, is also supported by widespread access to technology, which enables people to turn possibilities into reality.
"At their fingertips, young Chinese now have access to vast amounts of information and a wide range of tools that allow them to take the extra step, rather than just dream about something," Han said.
These enabling conditions are increasingly translating into concrete outcomes across sectors nationwide.
Harrison Li, 30, founder of the Hong Kong Eczema Association, said the drug development cycle in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) has been significantly shortened, thanks to the region's strong innovation capacity and abundant resources, including universities, talent, patient pools and real-world application scenarios.
"This setting also provides young researchers with ideal conditions to apply AI in scientific research, supporting more pilot-based testing to bring innovations into real-world use," he added.
For Li and many others, the "Innovating at Scale" theme carries implicit meaning -- ensuring that the benefits of innovation reach as many people as possible.
A patient of severe eczema himself, Li struggled with the condition for years, which eventually motivated him to do something for the eczema community. In 2020, he founded a health project in Hong Kong catering to eczema patients. The project uses stool analysis to identify individual deficiencies in beneficial gut bacteria and provide personalized probiotic supplementation.
Supported by a local government foundation as a charitable initiative, the project focuses on families below the poverty line, who may face more severe skin conditions due to poor living environments compounded by Hong Kong's hot and humid climate. Over the past two years, Li and his team have delivered more than 100 lectures to raise public awareness of the skin disorder.
The idea of finding one's place in society and contributing to it is echoed by He, who believes it is key to sustaining momentum in the long run.
"Only through this can young people build something meaningful, grow it over time, and ultimately drive innovation through long-term commitment, rather than short-term exploration," said He.
Meanwhile, many young entrepreneurs see China as a unique testing ground for innovation.
With a market of unparalleled scale and a wide range of industries and application scenarios, China offers ample room for experimentation beyond simply innovating at scale, said Olivia Webb, an environmental engineer from Australia who also attended the forum.
This, she noted, gives China a unique opportunity to pioneer new ideas and emerge as a global leader in a wide range of fields.
The consensus on AI's promise, however, was not born of unreserved optimism. "All concerns about AI are valid," said Nyashadzaishe Samukange, a co-owner of a natural foods company in Zimbabwe.
Samukange, who traveled about 26 hours to participate in the meeting, was referring to discussions among a group of entrepreneurs under 30 from around the world during an employment-focused session at the forum. While many voiced concerns about the automation and elimination of entry-level jobs, as well as the risk that hard-earned skills could quickly become outdated, the conversations were dominated by new possibilities AI can unlock for innovation.
Yet turning innovation into impact requires more than slogans. According to several young entrepreneurs, innovation begins with action: keeping pace with AI, staying curious, and remaining adaptable in a rapidly changing world. While the road ahead may be full of twists and turns, they believe that every detour can open the door to new possibilities.
In He's view, young people are naturally well-positioned to play a role amid technological transformation. As a generation growing up in the digital age, with an advantage of understanding and adapting to new technologies such as AI, they are expected to serve as a bridge between emerging technologies and real-world applications.
"This is a major chance for young people not only to participate in, but also to help shape the industries of the future through innovation," he said. ■
