BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Artificial intelligence (AI) is fast becoming a reliable engine of growth for China's industrial transformation. From factories and mines to classrooms and hospital wards, fresh AI applications are creating new businesses and reshaping the world's second-largest economy.
The 2026 World AI Conference (WAIC) and High-level Meeting on Global AI Governance will take place in Shanghai from July 17 to 20, where officials and industry leaders are set to discuss deeper international AI cooperation.
The event comes at a time when China's AI industry is gathering speed. China's core AI industry in 2025 exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan (about 176.7 billion U.S. dollars), with the sector featuring over 6,200 companies. More than 30 percent of large industrial enterprises in China have adopted AI, and leading smart factories have embedded the technology in over 70 percent of their operations.
AI MEETS REAL ECONOMY
At TBEA Shenyang Transformer Group Co., Ltd. in Shenyang, capital city of northeast China's Liaoning Province, two "factories" run in parallel: a physical one where robotic arms and automated guided vehicles work alongside operators, and a virtual one where simulation systems verify production schedules to reduce physical trial runs.
"This intelligent system, covering simulation, scheduling, execution and monitoring, has shortened product development cycles by 21 percent and boosted efficiency by 40 percent," said Xu Linlin, head of process and digital management at the company.
AI is also solving persistent problems across traditional industries. EACON Mining Technology Co., Ltd., an autonomous-driving solutions provider for the mining industry, said its system for open-pit mines, which is capable of working in extreme cold, heat and high altitude, has been deployed in over 40 mines, powering more than 3,100 autonomous trucks in daily operation.
In shared mobility, meanwhile, AI models have become the "brain" of bike-sharing platforms, cutting idle rates and optimizing vehicle deployment.
China's embodied AI sector, led by humanoid robots, is expanding at over 50 percent annually. On June 28, Chinese embodied AI company AGIBOT rolled out its 15,000th embodied AI robot, which was delivered straight to a Shanghai factory for regular production-line use.
Gan Xiaobin, deputy director of the science and technology department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, noted that the country's annual output of humanoid robots is expected to top 100,000 units this year.
Large language models and AI agents are also iterating at speed. Daily token calls of China's major models reached several hundred trillion in late May, among the highest levels globally.
INDUSTRY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
AI is also reshaping consumption and making its way into daily routines. In the first five months of 2026, retail sales of wearable smart devices more than doubled year on year, while sales at unmanned stores grew over 20 percent.
Also, iFlytek said its AI blackboards and education tools now serve more than 50,000 schools and 130 million teachers and students. AI pediatricians are at work in Beijing hospitals, elderly-care robots assist in nursing homes in south China's Shenzhen, and patrol bots guard Hangzhou's West Lake in east China at night.
This push is backed by strong policy support and a top-level design that is driving AI innovation across all sectors. New policies, including a set of guidelines issued earlier this week on deeply implementing the "AI Plus" initiative, have been unveiled, while China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for full implementation of this initiative.
Now in its ninth edition and themed "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future," the Shanghai AI event this year will feature more than 100,000 square meters of exhibition space and has attracted over 1,100 enterprises.
More than 140 forums will bring together 1,400 guests from China and abroad, and over 3,000 products and technologies will be showcased, with more than 300 making their global debuts.
"By capitalizing on the latest wave of scientific and industrial change, and fostering a two-way flow between AI innovation and real-world applications, China can leverage its integrated industrial system and wide range of use cases to inject fresh momentum into high-quality development and ensure that the gains of AI reach everyone," said Pang Chaoran, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce. ■
