Significant Breakthroughs in AI Commercialization

Currently, China’s artificial intelligence (AI) commercialization has achieved significant breakthroughs. As of March this year, the daily average token usage exceeded 140 trillion, marking a growth of over 40% compared to the end of last year. The development of AI is empowering various industries, driving rapid growth in related fields. In the first quarter, the value added of the digital product manufacturing industry increased by 11.2% year-on-year, with the value added of industries directly related to AI production and applications, such as electronic special materials manufacturing and integrated circuit manufacturing, increasing by 32.5% and 49.4%, respectively. The impact of AI has also extended to upstream industries providing raw materials and energy security, such as chemicals and electricity.

Experts indicate that AI is accelerating its deep penetration into the real economy, bringing significant innovation opportunities for high-quality economic and social development, and becoming a key lever for cultivating new productive forces and reshaping competitive advantages.

Creating a Positive Cycle

Tokens are the smallest basic units for AI models to process information. Each interaction between users and AI essentially represents an exchange of computing resources and data value, with tokens serving as the settlement unit.

Since the beginning of this year, intelligent agents like “lobster” have significantly increased token consumption. Data shows that at the beginning of 2024, the daily average token usage in China was 100 billion, which is expected to leap to 100 trillion by the end of 2025, surpassing 140 trillion by March this year.

“This data fully demonstrates that large models and various AI applications have truly moved out of the laboratory and into enterprise production and public life. Meanwhile, the related hardware industry has also achieved rapid growth, indicating that China’s AI development is no longer just a ‘software boom’ but has formed a positive cycle from underlying computing power and hardware infrastructure to upstream application ecology,” said Wang Guoqing, Vice Dean of the Academy of Artificial Intelligence at Sichuan University and Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Electronic Science and Technology.

Not only is there progress domestically. In February, data from the world’s largest AI aggregation platform indicated that China’s large AI models surpassed the United States for the first time with a token usage of 41.2 trillion. Notably, the platform’s users are primarily overseas developers, with American users accounting for as much as 47.17%, while Chinese developers only account for 6.01%. This makes the platform’s data more objectively reflect the true global appeal of Chinese large models.

“The ’token going overseas’ essentially transforms China’s electricity into high-value digital services that can be delivered globally. This is not only a microcosm of the development of China’s smart industry but also a systematic advantage formed by China’s AI in terms of energy costs, open-source ecology, and industrial chain collaboration,” said Zhu Xufeng, Dean of the School of Public Administration at Tsinghua University.

China possesses the world’s strongest industrial chain and manufacturing capacity. From chip manufacturing, smart hardware, algorithm development to various downstream application scenarios and physical products, a relatively complete AI industry chain ecosystem has been formed. China also has a robust infrastructure, with nationwide high-speed mobile communication (5G), cloud computing platforms, and big data centers providing hardware support for AI training and deployment. Additionally, China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of electricity, with the highest installed capacity of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, and the longest ultra-high voltage transmission network, providing ample and inexpensive electricity for the energy-intensive AI computing industry. The country has also cultivated a large pool of undergraduates and postgraduates in mathematics, computer science, and engineering, providing a strong talent reserve for the AI industry.

Strengthening Source Innovation

Driven by algorithm optimization, computing power enhancement, and data accumulation, AI demonstrates strong versatility and penetration. Experts indicate that to truly achieve comprehensive empowerment, AI still faces numerous challenges.

Wang Guoqing analyzed that at the algorithm level, current AI models perform excellently under closed test sets, but in the complex and ever-changing “open world” environment, the robustness, interpretability, and safety of algorithms still face significant challenges. At the data level, although China has a vast amount of data for AI, high-quality, finely annotated multi-modal data is still scarce in vertically segmented fields, directly limiting the development of professional-grade AI. At the computing power level, the cost of cloud computing remains high, and there is an urgent need to achieve breakthroughs in low-power, high-efficiency edge computing for practical applications such as robot control and high-security identity authentication.

With the support of policies and capital, some companies are accelerating their technology layout in cutting-edge fields to break through computing power bottlenecks. Recently, iFlytek announced a strategic investment in the two instruments of the Tsinghua University atomic quantum computing team, establishing Liangzhi Kaiwu (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. in collaboration with them, marking the beginning of a new chapter in “AI + Quantum” collaborative development. In the future, both parties will focus on algorithm research and technological innovation that deeply integrates AI with quantum technology, promoting the empowerment of AI in quantum computing, quantum precision measurement, intelligent quantum computers, and integrated computing power.

“AI has become a key area of international competition. There is still a half-generation to a generation gap between China and the US in terms of the top capabilities of models, mainly due to computing power and data, as the latter trained earlier and on a larger scale,” said Liu Qingfeng, Chairman of iFlytek. He believes that in the next decade of AI development, both the scientific community and the industry must seek new development paths, and quantum computing may be one of the answers.

“The 14th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes to implement strategic deployments for AI, quantum technology, and other technologies, placing quantum technology at the forefront of future industries as a ’new economic growth point.’ We should not be limited to existing technology iterations but actively plan for the next generation of AI,” Liu Qingfeng stated, emphasizing the need to proactively plan and layout disruptive fields such as “AI + Quantum,” strengthen source technology innovation in AI, and establish a more complete mechanism to encourage original innovation, laying a solid foundation for the next generation of AI development.

A Clearer Blueprint

“China possesses several inherent conditions and structural advantages in developing the AI industry, and we should vigorously promote innovation in AI technology, industry, and market applications, facilitating AI empowerment across various sectors,” Zhu Xufeng said.

With proactive policy efforts, the blueprint for top-level design is becoming increasingly clear. In August 2025, the State Council issued the “Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ‘AI+’ Action,” emphasizing not only AI technology itself but also how AI can empower industrial development. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments jointly issued the “Implementation Opinions on the ‘AI + Manufacturing’ Special Action,” proposing that by 2027, China’s key core AI technologies achieve safe and reliable supply, with industrial scale and empowerment levels remaining at the forefront of the world.

Li Lecheng, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that they will promote the intelligent upgrade of the entire manufacturing process, advancing the deep integration of AI technology into core production and manufacturing processes, expanding application scenarios such as intelligent auxiliary design, virtual simulation, and fault warning, and comprehensively transforming innovation paradigms, production methods, and management models. They aim to accelerate the iteration and innovation of smart products and equipment, promote the replacement of AI smartphones and AI computers, and expedite the research and application of new generation intelligent terminals such as humanoid robots and brain-computer interfaces, driving deep integration of large models with smart connected new energy vehicles and CNC machine tools.

“The ‘AI+’ action can greatly stimulate the innovation vitality of the digital economy and accelerate the development of new productive forces,” Zhu Xufeng noted. In emerging digital economy industries, the deep integration of AI with cutting-edge technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and blockchain is giving rise to new business formats. In traditional manufacturing, introducing technologies such as intelligent robots and machine vision can achieve automation and intelligent control of production processes, enhancing industry flexibility and competitiveness, and pushing manufacturing towards high-end and intelligent development.

Zhu Xufeng suggested that the government should fully leverage its leading role, concentrate advantageous resources, and increase funding for top research teams to lay a solid foundation for AI development. At the same time, it should encourage market and social capital to actively invest in technology development and industrial innovation, forming a diversified investment pattern in the AI industry. By gathering government and business resources, promoting collaborative industrial development, and enhancing China’s competitiveness in the global AI landscape.

Wang Guoqing believes that more supportive policies for basic research in AI application fields should be introduced, and a smoother platform for the transformation of production, education, research, and application should be established. It is essential to focus on national major needs and market pain points, encouraging universities and enterprises to collaborate on key issues, shortening the cycle from core technology breakthroughs to the landing of terminal products, and allowing AI to truly play a greater role in practical scenarios such as hospitals, factories, and schools.