Diffusion of AI Applications Has Passed the First Inflection Point

As AI technology continues to develop and has crossed the first inflection point of the S-curve, the industrialization of AI may advance at an unprecedented speed. The development space of embodied intelligence, exemplified by humanoid robots, has vast development prospects. Consumption patterns and the industrial structure of the economy may be reshaped with AI industrialization. As a powerful empowerment tool, AI has the potential to enhance the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). At the same time, however, its near “infinite” capacity to supply content and services may disrupt existing markets. Currently, AI technology has been applied across industries. The efficiency-enhancing effects of AI are particularly pronounced in the Internet and media sectors, where commercial applications are flourishing: Business-oriented applications provide strong content production capacity, and the consumer-oriented applications democratize creative production. In the healthcare sector, various AI applications help improve healthcare system efficiency and reduce costs, but they also face institutional barriers and tensions. AI technology is expected to accelerate the deployment of higher-level autonomous driving, thereby reshaping the business model and competitive landscape of the automobile industry. The home appliance industry, characterized by non-standardized scenarios and low tolerance for error, offers imaginative prospects for AI and humanoid robot applications, but technological maturity has yet to be achieved. Constraints on AI industrialization relate to both technical and institutional factors. In many promising scenarios, existing AI technology has yet to break through the required performance thresholds. Institutional factors include data rights and interests, copyright, allocation of liability, ethics, and opposition, from vested stakeholders, etc. Such institutional constraints are more likely to appear in contexts where AI economizes on or acts as a substitute for labor. Taken together, technical and institutional considerations suggest that diffusion of AI applications on the consumer side will be slower and more difficult than on the business side. To advance China’s AI industrialization, policies may need to moderately relax regulations to promote consumer-oriented AI applications. Notably, humanoid robots are poised to become an important industry through which the current wave of AI technology progress can be realized, embodying characteristics of high-end manufacturing. Given China’s advantages in the industry value chain and in the scale of manufacturing, the country is well positioned to achieve global leadership in the humanoid robot industry.