The World Artificial Intelligence Conference was held in Shanghai on July 6, 2023.
Aly Song |Reuters
BEIJING – Last week's release shows Chinese companies like Deepseek and Bytedance have moved quickly with an artificial intelligence model that competes with Openai's ChatGPT.
Today, many Chinese companies are increasingly based on their foundations to develop products that consider beyond chatbots.
BaiduBest known for search engines and Ernie Chatbots, on Tuesday, the generative AI-integrated Wenku platform for quickly creating PowerPoint and other documents reached 40 million paying users, with revenues rising 60% from a year ago at the end of last year. Updated features, such as using AI to generate presentations based on corporate financial applications, began rolling out to users last week.
On the corporate side, analyst Ben Yan, director of Gartner Data and Analytics, estimates that over 10% of China use generated AI, up from 8% about six months ago. It would be a pick-up for pace – the last two points increase in adoption took more than a year, he said Wednesday.
“With our clients, we hear more and more success stories,” he said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. Yan pointed out that so-called AI agents can help speed up the implementation of new technologies.
AI models focus on specific features such as searching and generating summary, but AI agents are more sophisticated. From searching to booking, you can automate the entire process. One example is OpenAI's new “operator” feature, which claims to allow you to make restaurant reservations on behalf of ChatGPT users.
AI agents are about to come to the Chinese market on a large scale.
Tencent According to a copy of the annual address seen by CNBC, Pony MA is planning to quickly integrate AI agents with messaging and social media app WeChat, telling staff in a January 13 speech.
“We believe that China's AI sector is moving forward at a pace comparable to the US AI sector,” said Jo Huang, director of private equity at Raffles Family Office in the email. She said the company is considering investing in China's leading AI deep tech fund to gain local opportunities.
Development of Chinese AI applications creates functions that are integrated with domestic smartphones. appleThe AI intelligence feature has not yet come to iPhone users in China.
“There is also a shift towards user preferences for local brands that can provide advanced AI capabilities tailored to local consumer preferences,” Wei Sun, leading artificial intelligence analyst at CounterPoint Research, said in an email Thursday.
She noted that Chinese smartphone companies such as Honor, Xiaomi and Vivo can improve the user experience of AI capabilities thanks to efforts to improve the efficiency of AI models that can be run on devices without relying heavily on internet-connected cloud services.
Compliance hurdles
The latest developments also reflect the difference between scrutiny of regulations with the US and the creation of a variety of technologies.
Ernie bots like Baidu's ChatGpt didn't get Beijing's green light due to their public deployment until August 2023, almost a year after ChatGpt took the world by storm.
The AI model must obtain official certification for use in China, but it is much easier to use in applications, says Alex Lu, founder of Shanghai-based LSY Consulting. On the side, he works with a small team on AI-driven tools to provide businesses with daily insights into industry trends and global regulations, as well as human consultants work.
Six months after development began in June 2023, Lu said the team began testing free products with potential customers, including manufacturers of car batteries. This makes the team want to charge 70,000 yuan per year to 100,000 yuan (9,660-13,790 dollars) of licensing fees.
But the bigger challenge is to allow businesses to access their own data or have AI use the content generated commercially.
“I think [multinational corporations are] Chris Reitermann, CEO of Ogilvy Asia-Pacific and Greater China, told CNBC late last year.
He said that clients have tried to use AI in their campaigns but only encountered compliance issues that would prevent the project from launching. “Local brands, they might be a little worried about these issues, more trial and error,” Reitermann said.
AI for global users
Some of the AI applications created in China are also used overseas. AlibabaEarlier this month, ACIO announced that Accio, an AI-powered search engine for product sourcing, has reached 500,000 SMEs users.
Launched in November, Accio allows businesses to find wholesale products using several text or image prompts. Provides an analysis of popularity for consumers and projected benefits.
Accio has access to Accio early and has sold Camp Lanterns and other products online for over a decade, reducing research time from weeks to a day. McClary, CEO of Amazing.com, claims to sell more than $1 million in e-commerce sales per year and is based outside of St. Louis.
He said Alibaba.com AmazonHe used it before, but after hundreds or thousands of results, he negotiated individually with 5-10 suppliers before settling on one. According to McClary, the “next game changer” is using AI to create ads by putting images of a product into any scenario.
