Seizing Opportunities in the AI+ Development Era

The 14th Five-Year Plan emphasizes the comprehensive implementation of the “AI+” initiative. This year, the Government Work Report introduced the concept of creating a new form of intelligent economy, attracting widespread attention. This new expression marks a shift in China’s AI development strategy from “tool empowerment” to “systemic reshaping.” By 2025, the scale of China’s core AI industry is expected to exceed 12 trillion yuan, with over 6,200 companies and the second-largest computing power globally. The application rate of AI technology in large-scale manufacturing enterprises has surpassed 30%, and the download volume of open-source large models launched by Chinese companies ranks among the highest in the world. The scale of the industry, innovation vitality, application breadth, and ecological maturity all indicate that AI is becoming a core engine for cultivating new productive forces and promoting high-quality development.

The Inherent Logic of Empowering High-Quality Development

The reason why “AI+” can cultivate new momentum for high-quality development lies in its ability to connect technological innovation, industrial innovation, and scenario innovation. Technology can only be transformed into real productive forces when it enters real scenarios; industries can only achieve a leap from digitalization to intelligence by incorporating intelligent technologies; and the continuous opening and iteration of scenarios will, in turn, drive model optimization, algorithm upgrades, and product innovation. Therefore, the empowerment of high-quality development by AI is not linear or singular but cyclical and systemic. It injects sustainable intrinsic motivation into economic development by promoting the deep integration of innovation chains, industrial chains, capital chains, and talent chains.

Firstly, “AI+” can significantly enhance total factor productivity. In the manufacturing sector, AI can be embedded in key processes such as product design, quality inspection, equipment maintenance, and supply chain collaboration, improving precision, reducing costs, compressing cycles, and minimizing waste. In the service sector, AI can drive precise matching, intelligent scheduling, and process reengineering, enhancing service quality and resource allocation efficiency. In agriculture, AI can promote precision planting, intelligent management, and risk warning, improving the level of agricultural modernization. This cross-industry and cross-link intelligent empowerment can revitalize traditional industries and give rise to new industries, new business formats, and new models, forming a more resilient and competitive modern industrial system.

At the same time, “AI+” can effectively promote a virtuous interaction between supply upgrades and demand expansion. High-quality development is not merely about expanding output scale but achieving a higher level of matching between high-quality supply and diversified demand. AI drives products to be smarter, services to be more precise, and experiences to be of higher quality, enhancing the adaptability of the supply system. It also continuously creates new scenarios, new consumption, and new occupations, expanding new demand boundaries. The rapid deployment of AI smartphones, AI computers, smart home devices, and intelligent medical equipment indicates that AI is accelerating its transition from the industrial end to the consumer and lifestyle ends. With an improved supply level and expanded demand space, economic circulation becomes smoother, and new momentum has a more solid growth foundation.

Thus, “AI+” cannot be achieved solely through breakthroughs in specific technologies; it is essentially a systematic project that requires collaboration among models, chips, software, and terminals, as well as support from elements such as computing power, data, scenarios, talent, and rules. The national strategy to support open-source community construction, promote intelligent computing clusters and computing power collaboration, build high-quality datasets, and strengthen computing power scheduling reflects a shift from “point breakthroughs” to “system support” in development thinking. Only by strengthening foundational support capabilities, optimizing the innovation ecosystem, and keeping institutional supply in line can AI development transition from “local leadership” to “overall leap,” forming a lasting driving force for high-quality development.

Practical Paths to Transforming into Real Productive Forces

Grasping the new opportunities of “AI+” hinges not on conceptual enthusiasm but on tangible results. To truly convert technological potential into developmental achievements, it is essential to adhere to systematic thinking, problem orientation, and scenario-driven approaches, coordinating efforts in solidifying foundations, deepening applications, cultivating ecosystems, and improving governance.

We must solidify the foundational capabilities for AI development. Computing power, data, and algorithms are the three fundamental supports for AI development. It is crucial to accelerate the construction of intelligent computing clusters, computing power collaboration, and high-quality datasets, enhancing computing power supply capabilities and resource allocation efficiency, lowering the barriers for enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to apply AI, and strengthening industry model training and scenario adaptation capabilities. A solid foundation enables more inclusive AI innovation, smoother industrial diffusion, and more sustainable new momentum cultivation.

We need to strengthen scenario-driven approaches and industry integration. The vitality of AI lies in its application, and its value is reflected in its application. We should continuously explore high-value scenarios around key areas such as manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, education, transportation, energy, and urban governance, forming a batch of replicable and promotable typical cases that allow AI to truly enter workshops, factories, hospitals, classrooms, and communities. In particular, we should promote the deep integration of AI and manufacturing, using intelligent manufacturing as a driver for technological iteration and industrial upgrades, and facilitating innovation landing and business closure through scenario openness, allowing “AI+” to transition from demonstration exploration to large-scale application.

We must accelerate the cultivation of an open and collaborative innovation ecosystem. Competition in AI is increasingly not just among individual enterprises but among industrial ecosystems, innovation ecosystems, and institutional ecosystems. We should leverage China’s advantages of a super-large market, a complete industrial system, and rich application scenarios to promote collaborative innovation among leading enterprises, research institutions, open-source communities, and small and medium-sized enterprises, enhancing technology diffusion efficiency and industrial collaboration levels. In particular, we should lower innovation costs and enhance technology inclusiveness through an open-source ecosystem, enabling more regions, industries, and enterprises to share the dividends of AI development, forming a development pattern of multi-party participation and collaborative progress.

We need to better coordinate development and governance. As AI accelerates its development, governance capabilities must also improve in tandem. Issues such as data security, algorithm bias, ethical boundaries, intellectual property, and employment structure adjustments are all important topics that must be addressed during the deep application of AI. Governance is not the opposite of innovation but a necessary guarantee for healthy innovation development. Only by adhering to benevolent, safe, and standardized development, and incorporating AI into a legal, institutional, and normative framework, can the technological dividends be better transformed into developmental dividends, industrial dividends, and livelihood dividends, achieving a unity of innovative vitality and social value.

Overall, “AI+” is no longer an optional technology but an important strategic lever for shaping new advantages in high-quality development. Seizing this opportunity requires not only accelerating technological breakthroughs but also promoting the collaborative evolution of technology with industries, scenarios, institutions, and governance, truly transforming “key variables” into “strong increments.” By aligning with the trend of intelligent development and continuously deepening and expanding “AI+”, we can accelerate the creation of a new form of intelligent economy, continuously cultivating new momentum for high-quality development, and injecting more vigorous and lasting intelligent power into Chinese-style modernization.