"New Forms of the Intelligent Economy" – What New Opportunities Do They Contain

[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Editor’s Note: This year’s National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (Two Sessions) included “Creating a New Form of Intelligent Economy” for the first time in the government work report, making “new form of intelligent economy” a hot topic in the economic field. Whether it’s technological breakthroughs brought by AI applications or the impressive presentation of humanoid robots on the Spring Festival Gala stage, they all mark the accelerating development of the intelligent economy. So, how should we understand the profound connotation of “creating a new form of intelligent economy”? Which industries will it inject new momentum into, and what new opportunities will it bring to domestic and foreign investors? In response to these questions, reporters from the Global Times interviewed several NPC deputies, CPPCC members, and experts and scholars.

Driving a Comprehensive “Artificial Intelligence+” Transformation

The government work report lists “creating a new form of intelligent economy” as a key task for 2026, proposing seven measures. The core idea is to empower industrial transformation through “Artificial Intelligence+”, use open-source communities as innovation engines, and build the intelligent foundation with smart computing clusters, satellite internet, 5G+ industrial internet, with data as a core element and AI governance as a development guarantee. These seven measures form a complete closed loop from technological breakthroughs to industrial implementation, providing a clear path for “creating a new form of intelligent economy.” To deeply interpret the connotation of this new economy, the Global Times reporter interviewed several NPC deputies, CPPCC members, and authoritative scholars, analyzing the strategic significance from different perspectives.

National People’s Congress deputy and Peking University honorary professor Tian Xuan told the Global Times, “‘New form of intelligent economy’ is a leap upgrade of the digital economy under deep AI empowerment, meaning AI shifts from being a tool-based application to a systemic reconstruction. By deeply integrating with various industries, it reshapes industry logic, organizational methods, and value creation paradigms, fostering native intelligent business models. Its strategic significance lies in guiding China to seize the high ground in future industrial competition and creating an economic development model with technological independence, industry penetration, and global competitiveness.”

Luming Lu, a CPPCC member and professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Antai School of Economics and Management, said in an interview with the Global Times that the “new form of intelligent economy” centers AI as the core engine, focusing on new infrastructure investments like computing power and energy, and emphasizes AI’s deep empowerment across industries. It also transforms consumption scenarios and improves decision-making efficiency, injecting new momentum into economic growth. Lu believes that in the short term, the development of intelligent computing clusters and AI intelligent agents will lead to an explosive growth. In the medium to long term, embodied intelligence and platform economy will reshape industry organization forms. He also noted that by 2026, the intelligent economy will undergo a vitality transformation, and all sectors should prepare in advance. The government should accelerate legislation and regulation to ensure healthy development of the “new form of intelligent economy.”

“Future, the intelligent economy will cover new industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and people’s livelihood fields, becoming an important support for high-quality development,” said Yu Miaojie, president of Liaoning University and NPC deputy, to the Global Times. On a macro level, intelligent terminals and intelligent agents are specific applications of embodied intelligence and will become important engines for China’s economic development. On a micro level, intelligent terminals and agents are shifting from “chat companions” to “assist in tasks.” In the future, open-source technology will enable diverse applications in agriculture, elderly care, office work, and other scenarios. For example, intelligent products for elderly care could realize functions like chatting, safety alerts, and household assistance. He also emphasized the need to coordinate safety and development, and to protect personal privacy.

Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek, believes that creating the “new form of intelligent economy” involves four transformations: from “digitization” to “intelligentization,” from “tool application” to “systemic reconstruction,” from “factor-driven” to “model + data + computing power + scenario” collaboration, and from “usability” to “trustworthiness and controllability.” He stressed that the premise of the “new form of intelligent economy” is safety, compliance, and governance, especially in key areas like education, healthcare, and government affairs, where it must be “auditable, traceable, and responsible.” Liu Qingfeng pointed out that the government work report mentioned AI seven times this year, indicating that AI has risen to a key strategic level, and its development has entered a systematic promotion stage with increased focus on quality and safety. The report also clarified the implementation path: industry-wise, with “AI+” as the main line; in terms of safety, maintaining the bottom line of independence and controllability; and in the ecosystem, promoting coordinated development through application-driven traction. For enterprises, it is essential to focus on long-term R&D, deeply cultivate essential scenarios, and strengthen safety and compliance. The “new form of intelligent economy” will also be a core force in promoting new productive forces, transforming traditional industries, and expanding the digital economy.

As one of the keywords of this year’s Two Sessions, the “new form of intelligent economy” has also sparked academic discussion. Liu Chunsheng, associate professor at the School of International Economics and Trade at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said that the “new form of intelligent economy” is a high-level form of promoting the economy from digitization to intelligence, marking AI’s upgrade from an industry empowerment tool to a fundamental economic paradigm that reconstructs the entire process of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. The government work report’s proposal and supporting measures are a continuation of the “AI+” strategy. In the future, the intelligent economy will deeply empower fields like intelligent manufacturing, smart agriculture, and intelligent transportation, driving growth in sectors like intelligent terminals and open-source ecosystems, promoting the transformation of traditional industries and the emergence of new business models, becoming a key driver of China’s high-quality development and an important pillar in global AI competition.

Shenyang Shen, a dual-appointed professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and Communication and School of Artificial Intelligence, told the Global Times that the “new form of intelligent economy” signifies a paradigm leap in China’s economic transformation from digital empowerment to intelligent reconstruction. It centers on “data + computing power + algorithms,” and through human-machine collaboration, cross-sector integration, and co-creation sharing, systematically reconstructs the entire chain of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption. This is a new leap in productivity following agricultural, industrial, and digital economies. This strategy not only provides endogenous momentum for China’s productivity leap but also creates new opportunities for global investors, attracting international capital to shift from “digital dividends” to “intelligent premiums,” co-creating technology and sharing markets in infrastructure, native intelligent business models, and vertical fields. In the future, it will promote the comprehensive reshaping of “AI+” across sectors, revitalize traditional industries, generate new economic models, and turn China’s intelligent engine into a multiplier for global economic growth.

From “Meat Cutting Robots” to “AI Brain”

“Creating a new form of intelligent economy” involves AI commercial applications. During the Two Sessions, many participating entrepreneurs and committee members expressed urgent needs for AI commercialization.

Liu Qingfeng, NPC deputy and chairman of iFlytek, said that the frequent mention of AI in the report is not about hype but about using AI as a general technological foundation to promote new productive forces, transform traditional industries, and expand the digital economy, applying it in manufacturing, energy, transportation, government, education, and healthcare to achieve tangible cost reductions, efficiency improvements, and quality enhancements.

Liu Yonghao, CPPCC member and chairman of New Hope Group, repeatedly discussed his “AI Brain” theory during the sessions. In an interview, he first mentioned the robots on the Spring Festival Gala stage this year—“They can sing and dance, with significant progress. This shows that our country has made considerable advances in humanoid robot hardware. But in agriculture, many robots still lack ‘smartness.’ This is because the development of the ‘brain’ supporting robot intelligence is relatively lagging, and operational data in complex environments are scarce.”

New Hope, a traditional agricultural enterprise, is exploring AI transformation. It is collaborating with a robot company to develop a “meat cutting robot” tailored to their factory scenarios. The robot’s “brain” is independently developed by New Hope. They have built a set of vertical domain models, collecting data through practical operations, manual input, simulation, and synthesis, then transforming this data into a language that robots and AI can understand, ultimately integrating it into specialized models and robotic systems to serve industry frontline.

Liu Yonghao said that after mass use, the robot’s intelligence improved significantly, bringing great benefits. For example, the national requirement for meat products’ net weight is at least 100 grams, with a tolerance of ±5 grams. Previously, manual operation averaged 107 grams. After using the robot for cutting and packing, it estimates weight by touch with high accuracy, with errors usually within 2%, averaging 102 grams. “Reducing from 107 grams to 102 grams—don’t underestimate this 5%. It’s huge value. It not only saves labor but also significantly reduces costs and increases efficiency,” Liu Yonghao said.

Manufacturers like TCL are also exploring self-developed AI brains. TCL founder and chairman Li Dongsheng told the Global Times that how to use AI to reduce costs and solve process problems in manufacturing is a key focus. He cited TCL Huaxing’s Xingzhi large model, now at version 3.0, which has strong inference capabilities and a more comprehensive knowledge system, directly aiding product development, improving problem analysis efficiency by 20%, and material development by 30%. In the new energy photovoltaic crystal segment, TCL Zhonghuan uses a dedicated deep blue AI model for the industry, achieving silicon wafer automated production after wire cutting, with fully automated packaging lines and less than 0.1% waste.

Liu Yonghao said that for embodied intelligence to truly land, industries need vast amounts of high-quality data to train models. For small and medium-sized enterprises, developing their own large models and creating robots for industrial manufacturing, agriculture, and healthcare is very challenging. He suggested promoting government and enterprise openness in scenarios and providing comprehensive support to embodied intelligence companies capable of real-world implementation in traditional industries.

Currently, many companies are experimenting with AI applications. Liu Shangxi, vice president of the China Macroeconomics Society and CPPCC member, told the Global Times that many enterprises prefer localized deployment, with some cloud service providers offering “door-to-door” services to build data centers and train models, achieving some success but at high costs.

For larger enterprise groups, Liu believes that developing public cloud computing power is a better solution. Data shows that in 2023, only 15% of Chinese SMEs used cloud services, far below over 60% in Europe and the US; public cloud computing accounts for less than 30%, while in the US, it exceeds 65%. “Without large-scale development of public cloud, AI adoption will remain limited by high costs, hindering breakthroughs,” he said.

Overseas Capital Favors China’s New AI Track

Many overseas media and industry investors have also paid attention to the Chinese government work report’s mention of “creating a new form of intelligent economy” for the first time. South Korean media generally interpret this as AI becoming a new engine for China’s economic growth and international competitiveness. Yonhap News Agency reported that China places great importance on AI industry development, and the concept of “creating a new form of intelligent economy” has attracted widespread attention.

South Korean academia generally believes that if China’s previous “AI+” emphasized industry-specific AI deployment, then “intelligent economy” signifies a systemic upgrade of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption activities, driven by AI as the core engine, with computing power as infrastructure and data as a key element.

Bloomberg reported on the 9th that investors are increasingly optimistic about China’s push to “create a new form of intelligent economy,” with AI, semiconductors, and other frontier technologies benefiting from this policy. This indicates China’s AI strategy is shifting from technological breakthroughs to commercialization. For stock investors, this means expanding beyond early hot stocks like chip manufacturers to include humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, bio-manufacturing, and future energy sectors.

Citigroup and Morgan Stanley analysts expressed confidence in the future of China’s tech and innovation sectors. South Korean market analysts also see the Two Sessions as an important window to gauge China’s industrial direction. Han Asia Securities analysts believe that policy signals from the Two Sessions help the market identify future key investment areas, with AI, humanoid robots, and semiconductors as potential focus points. As AI applications expand, infrastructure for computing power and domestic AI chip development are also gaining market attention.

Some Korean investors are increasing their holdings of Chinese AI and tech assets. Piao Dongzhu, a Korean individual investor holding Xiaomi stocks and related ETFs, told the Global Times that as China’s AI policies become clearer, he is focusing on investment opportunities in AI semiconductors, robots, and intelligent manufacturing. Another investor, Lee Kyung-ji, said that China’s accelerated AI development is a positive signal, and recent volatility and risks in US stocks have prompted him to reallocate assets toward Chinese tech assets.

Hamburg trader Judan told the Global Times that “the intelligent economy” will create new opportunities for global investors. He shared his personal experience: over ten years ago, he made his first fortune importing Chinese small appliances, home products, and clothing. As Chinese products’ technological content increased, his imports evolved, and his business grew larger. Recently, his company has begun importing high-end Chinese cars and intelligent robots.

“Creating a new form of intelligent economy will open high-confidence growth windows for international investors,” said Tian Xuan, NPC deputy and Peking University honorary professor. He explained that first, promoting intelligent terminals and agents will generate a huge market for hardware manufacturing, software development, and scenario applications, providing precise entry points for multinational companies in core component R&D like chips and sensors, or in niche fields like smart home and industrial robots. Second, building open-source communities and deploying AI clusters will accelerate the formation of a global AI infrastructure network, attracting foreign investment in high-value computing services and model training platforms. Third, the rise of new industry ecosystems will foster cross-border technological cooperation and standard-setting, offering diverse collaborative investment opportunities for international capital.

Liu Chunsheng, associate professor at the School of International Economics and Trade at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told the Global Times that for international investors, China’s vast market, complete industrial chain, and opening policies provide long-term stable opportunities in areas like computing infrastructure, AI technology, smart hardware, and industrial digitalization, sharing in technological innovation and market growth dividends.

Meanwhile, in talent cultivation, Chinese universities are accelerating the adjustment of academic programs. Since last year, many “Double First-Class” universities have announced new colleges focusing on frontier technologies and emerging industries urgently needed by the country, such as AI, aerospace, quantum science, and AI+. Li Zijian, president of Hong Kong University of Education and a CPPCC member, introduced their AI education layout. Undergraduate programs prioritize training teachers and professionals, starting with courses that ensure every student in the four- or five-year program will take a university-specific AI general education course. For graduate and research levels, the university has a team of experts researching AI applications, especially in education, humanities, and social sciences, emphasizing deep integration of teaching practice. The university is also actively expanding research collaborations with institutions like Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, East China Normal University in Shanghai, and other international universities, jointly advancing frontier topics.

Looking ahead, the interviewed NPC deputies, CPPCC members, and scholars all believe that the “new form of intelligent economy” has enormous potential. It will deeply empower fields like intelligent manufacturing, industrial internet, smart agriculture, healthcare, smart transportation, and digital services, driving rapid growth in sectors like intelligent terminals, agents, open-source ecosystems, and data elements. It will promote the transformation of traditional industries and the emergence of new business models, becoming a key driver of China’s high-quality development and an important pillar in global intelligent competition.

[Global Times reporters Yang Shasha, Li Xundian, Chen Zisui, Yang Shuyu; Special correspondent in Germany Qing Mu; Special correspondent in Korea Li Zhiyin]