A robot demonstrates popcorn sales at Guangdong Zhi Dong Future Technology Co., Ltd. in Haizhu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. Photo by Xinhua reporter Liu Mengqi.

Buying a grilled sausage from a robot in English at a convenience store, test-riding a driverless car on the street, and seeing AI-powered teaching on campus: after personally exploring the wide use of AI in daily life in China, many foreign journalists reached the same conclusion: in China, artificial intelligence is not the future; it has already arrived.

As China fully implements its AI+ initiative, artificial intelligence is being deeply integrated across the economy and society, entering households and empowering industries. This wave of development has drawn broad international attention. While visiting diverse AI application scenarios, foreign reporters have also tried to understand how China’s speed in AI has been forged.

Practical Applications Bring AI Into Production and Daily Life

China’s AI industry is entering a new stage, characterized by a shift in focus from training to inference, from technology to applications, and from potential returns to real returns.

In energy, AI is being used to optimize power production, smart grids, and renewable energy management, improving system efficiency and stability. In education, AI supports personalized learning, intelligent tutoring, and automated assessment. In urban development, AI optimizes traffic and public services; nearly 70% of new cars are equipped with intelligent cabins, and autonomous vehicles are being gradually promoted.

The European technology news platform Digital Agenda recently reported that China has built an AI application ecosystem covering multiple fields. It said Chinese AI technology is deeply integrating into economic production, social development, and public services, enabling broad implementation of innovative applications.

The Spanish website Modaes focused on the use of AI in China’s textile manufacturing industry. It reported that in 2025, China announced the full implementation of the AI+ initiative, meaning AI would be integrated into textile manufacturing to maximize productivity. The report said this would have a profound impact on the global fashion industry: the fashion industry in 2026 must recognize that its reliance on China is no longer only about labor, but increasingly about China’s innovative intelligence and technological infrastructure.

Today in China, AI is deeply integrated into industries and daily life. From factories to campuses, from shopping malls to communities, AI is no longer limited to sophisticated algorithms inside laboratories.

Singapore’s Business Times cited a Morgan Stanley research report saying China’s AI industry is entering a new stage. The report described this stage as a move from training to inference, from technology to applications, and from potential returns to actual returns, with a focus on improving speed, lowering costs, and achieving system-level integration so that AI can spread rapidly in the real economy. It said China is showing a new advantage in this stage: it is faster than anywhere else at scaling, adapting to change, and commercializing AI.

Malaysia’s The Star said China’s AI products emphasize real-world implementation and that the country is already world-leading in resource integration. Its open-source, shared developer ecosystem has effectively promoted the rapid spread of technology at home and abroad, as well as applications in energy, transportation, and healthcare. The integrated development of AI will help upgrade China’s technology, industrial development, and industrial applications.

Time magazine in the United States said China’s AI industry is booming. Data show that China has thousands of AI companies and ranks among global leaders in the number of valid AI patents. The article noted that the Chinese government is strongly supporting AI development through the AI+ initiative. By 2030, China plans for AI to fully empower high-quality development, for the adoption rate of next-generation intelligent terminals and agents to exceed 90%, and for the intelligent economy to become an important growth pole of China’s economy.

Comprehensive Strengths Fuel Innovation

The rapid development of China’s AI technology ecosystem is driven by multiple factors, including government policy guidance, legal and institutional safeguards, stronger corporate innovation, and broad participation by society.

Why have AI applications accelerated so quickly in China?

Kyle Chan, a China technology researcher at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview with The New York Times podcast that in terms of AI development path, China not only wants to have the best AI models, but also emphasizes practical applications and real-world scenarios. China seeks ways for these models to work and builds broad ecosystems that integrate them into more and more services. This is especially visible in robotics, where government and companies are jointly pushing technology into daily life. That is why in major Chinese cities people can see autonomous delivery robots handling parcels and food delivery; service robots bringing food to tables in restaurants; delivery robots providing room service in hotels; and, in addition to self-driving cars, drones delivering takeout.

Germany’s TechZeitgeist analyzed that the rapid development of China’s AI technology ecosystem benefits from multiple factors, including government policy guidance, legal and institutional support, stronger corporate innovation, and participation from social forces. Companies, universities, and startups cooperate to form a complete innovation chain. China also uses events such as the World Artificial Intelligence Conference to build platforms for technology demonstrations, capital matching, and international exchange, accelerating the flow of knowledge and the implementation of technology.

Fortune magazine in the United States said that as global AI competition becomes increasingly intense, China is showing increasingly prominent comprehensive advantages. In energy supply, China has relatively abundant and lower-cost power resources, which are crucial for an AI industry highly dependent on computing power and data centers. In manufacturing, China has a globally leading manufacturing system and a complete industrial chain that can support rapid production and large-scale deployment of related equipment, shortening the cycle from research and development to application. In the open-source ecosystem, Chinese technology companies and developers have continued to advance open-source models and algorithm frameworks in recent years, opening many technological achievements to the world and attracting broad developer participation. This has accelerated technological iteration and expanded the international influence of China’s AI technology. In capital investment, both government policy support and sustained corporate investment have kept China’s input at a high level, providing stable resources for AI industry development.

Newsweek in the United States noted that China’s R&D investment has continued to grow rapidly in recent years, while its ranks of top researchers have kept expanding, injecting core momentum into sustainable innovation. At the same time, a group of internationally competitive Chinese technology companies have made breakthroughs not only in AI, but also in electric vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, and other fields. They have formed close collaborative networks with universities and research institutions to jointly tackle key core technologies. At the policy level, China is also actively guiding the application and promotion of domestic technologies, providing valuable market support for multiple strategic industries.

Open Source Lowers the Threshold for the AI Era

China’s AI development path is influencing the global industry ecosystem. By providing efficient, open, and high-performing technology tools, China is lowering the threshold for all parties to enter the AI era.

Japan’s Nishinippon Shimbun reported that high-tech products such as AI, electric vehicles, and industrial robots have become core drivers of China’s export trade. The coordinated development of China’s AI and robotics technologies is moving from technological breakthroughs toward large-scale application, while promoting the development of the technology industry and economic growth. China has consistently promoted integration between AI and robotics through self-reliance and strength, and has applied AI at scale and commercially in key fields to promote high-tech industrial development.

AI is a shared asset of all humanity. The flourishing of China’s AI sector is both the result of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and the outcome of China’s commitment to consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. China encourages open source and openness, and promotes access to AI. It has also proposed establishing a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization and released an AI+ International Cooperation Initiative, contributing Chinese proposals to global AI governance.

Reuters said Chinese AI companies’ global influence is gradually rising. Chinese companies’ deployment of open-source models has led to their technologies being adopted by more international developers and companies, with some multinationals even developing products directly based on Chinese models. This trend shows that Chinese AI is competitive not only at the technical level, but is also beginning to play a practical role in global industrial chains. By promoting technological openness and application, China is accelerating its shift from follower to important participant, and its AI development path is influencing the global industry ecosystem.

An editorial in Nature said China’s proposal to establish a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization is in the interests of all countries, and that governments, researchers, and relevant institutions worldwide should actively participate. The article called on countries to work together to discuss AI safety principles and jointly plan ways to strengthen AI governance.

Russia’s Expert magazine website cited experts saying China does not treat AI as a trend-following product, but as a practical tool for factory production, medical services, logistics, transportation, and public services. This is clearly reflected in China’s various planning documents. China’s development experience is worth attention. Some Russian management schools have already cooperated with Chinese business schools to organize in-depth study of Chinese companies’ hands-on experience in implementing AI.

China has provided everyone with a new path through open-source models: the path of public goods, Malaysia’s New Straits Times said. Thanks to open-source model weights and open downloads, universities in Brazil or financial institutions in South Africa can run and use them on domestic servers. Uganda’s large language model Sunflower, launched last year, was developed based on China’s Qianwen model. It can not only provide agricultural guidance to farmers, but also help students translate learning materials into local dialects. The article said China’s AI development is not only a national success story, but also shows how China provides development momentum for the whole world. By offering efficient, open, and high-performing technological tools, China has lowered the threshold for all parties to enter the AI era.