AI push moves innovation into everyday life

For Huang Xiaozhen, the future of artificial intelligence isn't about computing power or algorithmic scale, but about something far more ordinary: the quiet click of a light switch.

As head of business-to-business operations at MiniMax Group Inc, a rising Chinese AI unicorn, Huang sees the current wave of innovation less as a technological leap than as a transition toward being ubiquitous.

"As the technology iterates, AI will become like water, electricity or coal — the fundamental infrastructure of our existence," Huang said. "It will be everywhere in our lives and work."

The vision widely shared by AI optimists has increasingly aligned with the nation's official policy.

In its recommendations for formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for national economic and social development, the Communist Party of China Central Committee called for "forward-looking plans" for future industries, urging exploration of diverse technology road maps, application scenarios, business models and regulatory frameworks.

The document explicitly listed quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied artificial intelligence and 6G mobile communications as new drivers of growth.

The confidence of China's AI practitioners received a major boost in April 2025, when President Xi Jinping visited the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center, one of the country's most active AI hubs.

Standing among developers and entrepreneurs, Xi, who is also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, described artificial intelligence as "a young cause, and a cause for young people", encouraging them to align personal ambition with China's modernization drive.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China had more than 6,000 AI enterprises last year, while the scale of the country's core AI industry was expected to have exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan ($172.6 billion) in 2025.

The president's visit, combined with subsequent policy measures, has strengthened confidence among startups facing intense competition, according to executives working inside the ecosystem.

Zhang Yun, a deputy general manager at the center, said the visit validated the pace and direction of the hub's development.

"Nearly 75 percent of our workforce is under the age of 35," Zhang said. "We're seeing founders who are barely 30. As AI tools become more powerful, teams are getting smaller, younger and faster."

The center operates on what participants describe as a philosophy of proximity. "Upstairs and downstairs are upstream and downstream," Zhang said, referring to the close physical clustering of foundational model developers and application companies, which allows for rapid iteration and feedback.

Yao Zhendi, CEO of Cyber Partner AI Co, said the youthfulness of the sector reflects the nature of the technological challenge itself.

"We're no longer doing 'one to 10'innovation, where you just improve something that already exists," Yao said. "We're doing 'zero to one'. There's no formula and no homework to copy. We're defining what this technology becomes."

He added that national planning documents emphasize not only AI, but the integration of embodied intelligence across industries, with a forward-looking approach to development.

Over the next five years, he said, AI is expected to penetrate daily life and a wide range of sectors in line with the 15th Five-Year Plan.

His company is working on the convergence of the "brain", meaning large-scale models, and the "body", referring to embodied intelligence — a frontier where software meets robotics.

Paradigm shift

The national strategy outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan proposals calls for a paradigm shift in scientific research and a focus on self-reliance in breakthroughs in chips, algorithms and data.

For Wang Le, CEO of Shanghai SiliconPear Technology Co, the transformation is already playing out on factory floors and toy shelves.

Wang's company exports to more than 30 countries and uses AI to upgrade traditional manufacturing.

"We're turning toys from simple manufactured goods into high-tech consumer products," Wang said."It's no longer just about branding. It's about embedding technology to upgrade the entire supply chain, which gives Chinese products a distinct global competitive edge."

Xi's visit to the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center came after he presided over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, highlighting the need to promote the healthy and orderly development of AI in a beneficial, safe and fair direction.

Huang, from MiniMax, said that companies across the AI value chain are directly feeling the impact of State support. From his perspective, policies aimed at supporting models and application scenarios are accelerating innovation and technical iteration across the industry.

"It's clear that more and more enterprises, scenarios and applications are moving toward AI," Huang said. "Many new startups are designing products and use cases based entirely on current AI capabilities. This looks more like a society-wide embrace of AI, and the growth of the entire industry chain is extremely fast."

Zhou Chen, CEO of Zhejiang Dex-Robot Intelligent Technology, said Xi has explicitly called for accelerating the application of AI in technological innovation and industrial development, a signal that Zhou sees as materially beneficial for enterprises.

He pointed to concrete policy measures such as subsidized computing power and pilot programs for new models. China launched a 60 billion yuan AI industry investment fund to support the development of the whole AI industrial chain.

"They allow companies to be bold and try things first," Zhou said."Ultimately, it helps improve human efficiency and reduce defect rates in manufacturing."

Zhou cited incentives including free or subsidized computing resources, early access to models, and funding for major research projects as mechanisms that encourage companies to experiment.

He argued that China has structural advantages in pursuing such technologies: a complete industrial supply chain, a wide range of real-world application scenarios that generate data, and growing domestic computing capacity.

While much of the focus remains on domestic self-reliance, officials and researchers say China's AI ambitions also have an outward-facing dimension.

International public good

Yan Weixin, chief scientist at the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, said Xi has called for AI to be developed as an international public good that benefits humanity.

Yan said China has launched initiatives related to AI reinforcement learning and sustainable development, and has begun sharing algorithms and models with partner countries, including those participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

These technologies are being applied to areas such as disaster warning systems and low-carbon industrial facilities overseas, he said.

Highlighting the link between energy and computation, he said: "AI consumes energy, and energy defines computing power. In the future, there will be deep integration between new energy and dynamic computing."

Otto Heinrich Herzog, an academician of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering and a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, said he has been struck by the speed with which policies translate into implementation in China.

"When something aligns with strategy in China, it really gets implemented," Herzog said. "That's something you don't experience in the same way in Europe."

Zhou Wenting and Wang Ying in Shanghai contributed to this story.

xuwei@chinadaily.com.cn