China's vision to turn artificial intelligence from an expensive frontier technology into a resource for affordable, widely accessible applications will bring huge benefits to more countries, businesses and ordinary people worldwide, said leading industry experts and company executives.
They made the comments on Tuesday after President Xi Jinping, in his keynote speech on Friday at the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in Shanghai, said that AI should be developed "for the positive, for good and for humanity".
"AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation," Xi said.
He called for coordinated advances in the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries, the cultivation and growth of emerging industries, and forward-looking planning for future industries, so that all sectors and businesses can benefit from AI.
Long Yongtu, China's former chief negotiator for its accession to the World Trade Organization, said the rise of AI has become another turning point in the country's economic development.
He said that China's entry into the WTO in 2001 unleashed the vitality of millions of market participants after restrictions on foreign trade rights were relaxed, helping the country grow into the world's largest trader in goods and allowing ordinary people to increase their income through international commerce.
"Now, entering the age of AI heralds a new era of opening-up. AI is triggering a similarly profound transformation by reshaping production relationships, corporate structures and the cost of starting a business in the country," Long said.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China has embraced AI with open arms, with the value of its core AI industries exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan ($177 billion) last year, maintaining annual growth of more than 20 percent for several consecutive years.
Furthermore, the country is seeking to turn AI into real-world applications and a driver of economic growth.
In the first half of this year, the industrial output of AI-related sectors, including integrated circuit manufacturing and in-vehicle intelligent equipment manufacturing, grew more than 30 percent.
Long predicted that more individuals and small, specialized companies that use AI to perform work that previously required much larger organizations will emerge to become new drivers of the economy.
"Success should ultimately be judged not by model rankings or investment valuations, but by whether AI really improves people's lives," he added.
Efforts to push AI beyond chatbots and benchmark rankings into the physical economy include China's "AI Plus" initiative, which seeks to embed AI in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, energy and public services.
President Xi also said in his speech that China should facilitate technological innovation, industrial development and "scenario-based application of AI".
Huo Fupeng, director of the innovation-driven development center of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that "China is leveraging its complete industrial system, enormous range of application scenarios and super-sized market to accelerate AI's deployment across thousands of industries".
"Its dense industrial supply chains and vast domestic market give developers an environment in which technologies can be tested, refined and deployed at scale," he said.
Data from Counterpoint Research showed that approximately 16,000 humanoid robots were deployed globally in 2025, with China accounting for more than 80 percent of them.
At the World AI Conference, Chinese robotics company PrimeBOT unveiled a new, transformable robot that is capable of switching between quadruped and humanoid forms.
Tian Hua, CEO of leading materials maker Swancor Advanced Materials Co and head of PrimeBOT, said: "The robotics supply chain comprises more than 1,600 components. At least 1,000 companies are capable of building a robot globally, but only a handful can manufacture 10,000 robots at consistent quality and scale."
"That's China's advantage — transforming personal robots from custom-built machines into mass-produced consumer products," he said. "We are also confident of making such robots really affordable for ordinary people."
Such industrial depth could also help lower the cost of AI products for overseas users. While global attention has focused on Western technology companies competing for lucrative enterprise contracts in the United States and the Middle East, Chinese companies are promoting open-source products across developing countries.
Alex Zhavoronkov, founder and CEO of AI-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine, said China's emphasis on open-source development will amplify those gains internationally.
"China is already leading the world in the open-source model," he said.
"The Chinese approach and its AI policies are paving the way for the entire industry, and everyone on the planet will benefit."