At a textile mill in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, the rhythmic clatter of looms is now harmonized with a brand new sound: the silent, rapid-fire calculations of synthetic intelligence.
China Telecom’s “StarWeave Textile AI Agent” is relentlessly at work right here — adjusting thread stress in real-time and scrutinizing cloth for flaws because it emerges, reworking an age-old craft within the course of.
The outcomes communicate volumes: 99 % on-time supply, a 20 % surge in productiveness and near-perfect defect detection, China Telecom stated.
This just isn’t an remoted experiment, however a glimpse right into a sweeping transformation the place AI is quickly changing into the indispensable engine powering China’s industrial evolution.
Across the huge panorama of Chinese manufacturing, a wave of “Industry plus AI” is cresting, pushed by the nation’s tech corporations, that are scrambling to develop AI brokers to unravel duties.
AI brokers are software program techniques that use AI to pursue objectives and full duties on behalf of customers. Unlike conventional AI, which can merely help or present suggestions, AI brokers are able to executing complicated workflows with out steady human enter. These brokers are purpose-built to carry out specialised roles inside an organization, corresponding to buyer assist, knowledge evaluation, compliance checking and even performing monetary duties, specialists stated.
Li Lecheng, minister of {industry} and data expertise, chaired a gathering in Beijing in June, outlining a complete technique to speed up AI technological innovation and built-in software, thereby positioning AI as a core driver of China’s new industrialization.
Xie Shaofeng, chief engineer on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the nation’s prime {industry} regulator, stated at a information convention that the ministry has additionally coordinated with provincial governments to develop 11 nationwide AI innovation pilot zones.
Meanwhile, central and native authorities have collectively constructed specialised manufacturing innovation facilities for embodied AI robots, humanoid robots and different next-generation applied sciences to drive the event of industrial clusters, Xie stated.
Hong Qunlian, a researcher on the National Development and Reform Commission’s Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research, stated: “Manufacturing is the point of interest of competitors amongst main powers and technological supremacy. Nurturing strategic benefits for the longer term essentially depends on the high-quality improvement of our manufacturing {industry}.
“Promoting AI-driven industrial upgrading is paramount for China’s real economy over the next five years. And, achieving breakthroughs in critical technologies is not optional, it is essential, as we still face challenges in these areas.”
Ryoji Sekido, co-CEO of Accenture Asia Pacific, stated: “China stands on the forefront of world AI innovation and deployment, serving as an unparalleled benchmark for enterprise transformation.
“There is no better place to witness AI progress than right here in China and Shanghai. The ecosystem’s rapid evolution is impressive.”
Sekido highlighted how Chinese corporations are transitioning from remoted AI experiments to complete, enterprise-wide reinvention. He pointed to electrical automobile big BYD as a paradigm-shifting case.
“This isn’t about simple AI use cases. BYD harnessed AI end-to-end — from battery R&D and design automation to manufacturing and autonomous driving systems — fundamentally reinventing operations to accelerate time-to-market and capture dominant market share,” Sekido stated.
This strategy, he burdened, represents “corporate reinvention”, the place AI turns into a strategic engine quite than a productiveness software.
The statistics additionally verify the surge.
Market analysis firm International Data Corp revealed a seismic shift: the proportion of Chinese industrial enterprises deploying massive fashions and clever brokers has skyrocketed from 9.6 % in 2024 to 47.5 % in 2025.
Crucially, these implementing these applied sciences throughout a number of operational areas have exploded from 1.7 % to 35 %.
“We’re moving rapidly beyond isolated pilots,” stated Cui Can, senior analysis supervisor of IDC China. “High-value intelligent agent applications are landing and scaling.”
IDC forecasts China’s industrial AI spending to achieve 90 billion yuan ($12.53 billion) by 2028, fueled by this accelerating adoption.
This is excess of mere automation.
AI is enabling a basic evolution in how Chinese {industry} operates, transferring from fragmented level options towards interconnected, more and more autonomous techniques. “Industrial AI agents represent a critical lever,” Cui stated. “They drive the innovation cycle for essential industrial assets — datasets and large language models — creating a self-reinforcing ecosystem for advancement.”
The functions are diversifying quickly throughout the industrial panorama.
In May, Lenovo unveiled its manufacturing-focused AI brokers, designed to fuse AI capabilities with many years of industrial know-how. Its “Supply Chain Control Tower” agent delivers staggering effectivity: decision-making accelerated by 50-60 %, order achievement charges boosted by 5 %, and a 20 % discount in manufacturing and logistics prices, Lenovo stated.
The momentum is palpable.
Huawei entered the fray in June with FusionPlant 3.0, a strategic platform explicitly designed to speed up the creation and deployment of industrial AI brokers and sensible functions.
The message from these corporations is unequivocal: industrial AI is now not speculative; it is operational, delivering concrete worth.
Concurrently, corporations like Shanghai Wisdom Information Technology Co Ltd are pioneering “industrial AI agents codriven by large language models”, creating novel digital functions and multimodal AI cooperation particularly designed for manufacturing environments, specializing in end-to-end optimization.
Sector-specific revolutions are additionally unfolding, exemplified by Dongfang Precision Group’s subsidiary, which is laser-focused on AI-driven transformation for the packaging {industry}, providing tailored industrial web platforms and digital improve options.
Despite the spectacular strides, the trail ahead calls for greater than remoted technological triumphs. Industry leaders and analysts alike stress that the subsequent part of industrial AI maturity hinges on sturdy ecosystem collaboration to beat persistent hurdles.
The challenges, nevertheless, are multifaceted and deeply interconnected. Data fragmentation stays a serious barrier, with inconsistent knowledge hindering AI’s full potential, and breaking down these partitions necessitates industry-wide requirements and cooperation, specialists stated.
Meanwhile, vital technological hurdles persist, together with the restricted generalization capabilities of enormous fashions whereas tackling extremely particular, complicated industrial duties, and the essential bottleneck of computational energy. “Computing power scarcity fundamentally constrains development. Yet utilization efficiency in training and inference is often paradoxically low,” stated Cao Kai, director of Smart Industrial Solutions at Baidu Smart Cloud.
The transformation is plain. From Lenovo’s streamlined world provide chain to the flawless cloth rolling off AI-monitored looms, clever brokers are demonstrably enhancing productiveness, slashing prices, and enabling unprecedented precision.
As these brokers proliferate, studying and adapting inside complicated industrial ecosystems, they’re evolving from subtle instruments into the very central nervous system of recent Chinese manufacturing, specialists added.
“Innovation stands as a pivotal force propelling the high-quality advancement of the manufacturing sector, and companies are increasingly assuming central roles in driving innovation,” stated Li Jinghong, an academician on the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Tsinghua University.
Ma Jun, senior vice-president of Volvo Group and president of Volvo (China) Investment, stated: “We see great potential in China’s AI growth. With its vast market and diverse application scenarios, China provides a unique space for AI innovation. I look forward to seeing more creative AI solutions in the transportation and infrastructure sectors, to help reduce logistics costs further and support sustainable development in China and globally.”
