This year's Government Work Report introduced the concept of "creating a new intelligent economic form" for the first time. The intelligent economy is based on artificial intelligence technology, with AI as its core driving force. However, this is not simply viewing AI as a single industry or tool. Instead, it uses data as a key element, computing power as a foundational support, algorithms as the core engine, and intelligent agents and smart terminals as important carriers. Through human-machine collaboration, cross-sector integration, and co-creation and sharing, it achieves an economic form characterized by intelligent, networked, and self-evolving development.
In other words, the intelligent economy is not about "installing an AI plugin into the economy." It is about driving a systemic restructuring of production, circulation, consumption, and governance methods, pushing the logic of economic operations from digitalization further toward intelligentization.
Where does the "newness" of this intelligent economic form lie?
I believe it is reflected in at least four aspects. First, the mode of production is changing, shifting from humans finding data and making decisions based on experience to being data-driven, enabling human-machine collaboration and real-time optimization. Second, industrial organization is changing, moving from point-based digitalization to full-chain intelligentization. Third, consumption patterns are changing, with products like AI phones, AI glasses, smart cars, and service robots driving a shift from passive response to proactive service. Fourth, public services and social governance methods are changing, with education, healthcare, elderly care, and government services all trending toward being more precise, intelligent, and efficient.
Overall, the intelligent economy is no longer just about connecting people, goods, and places. It is about allowing data to flow on its own, models to learn continuously, devices to respond automatically, and systems to optimize in real-time. In the past, the economy operated like an assembly line requiring layers of instructions to be passed down. Now, the intelligent economy is more like an organism with a "neural network," where the system can perceive demand changes, supply fluctuations, and efficiency losses more quickly, enabling faster decision-making and adjustment.
Therefore, the "newness" of the intelligent economic form is not simply about having more AI technologies and products. It is about the entire economy transitioning from "digital recording" to "intelligent operation," from "people chasing problems" to "systems revolving around demand," and from "local optimization" to "global coordination."
China's designation of creating a new intelligent economic form as a key task represents a proactive response to the general trend of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. It is also an active response to the practical needs of high-quality development, simultaneously reflecting a strategic judgment on the profound changes in the global AI competitive landscape.
Reasons for advancing the intelligent economy
First, it aligns with the general trend of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. Globally, AI is moving from technological breakthroughs to widespread application, profoundly changing production methods, industrial organization, and service models. China must proactively deploy resources to push economic operations from digitalization further toward intelligentization. Second, it meets the needs for achieving high-quality development and strengthening new productive forces. China's economic transformation and upgrading require new growth momentum. Creating a new intelligent economic form is conducive to promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, cultivating new industries, new business forms, and new consumption in areas like smart terminals and intelligent services, and improving total factor productivity. Third, it is about seizing strategic initiative in the global AI competition. AI has become a crucial high ground in international competition. The party that can quickly form technological, industrial, and application advantages will be better positioned to control the initiative in future development.
Current status and future prospects
Currently, it is the right time for China to create a new intelligent economic form, as it has both broad prospects and significant advantages. In 2025, the scale of China's core AI industry has exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, and the application penetration rate of AI technology among enterprises above a designated size has surpassed 30%. In practice, the intelligent economy is no longer a distant concept but a realistic process with industrial foundations, policy deployments, and application scenario support. At the same time, China's large market space, complete industrial system, and rich application scenarios can provide strong support for AI technology innovation, product iteration, and large-scale deployment. As the "AI Plus" initiative deepens, technological potential, market advantages, and institutional strengths will further translate into development advantages.
We are already seeing some encouraging trends. For example, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd.'s AI quality inspection, BOE Technology Group Co., Ltd.'s industrial large models, and Haier Group Corporation's smart home appliance applications demonstrate that AI is entering the core links of manufacturing. The emergence of smart terminals like AI phones, AI glasses, and humanoid robots shows that the potential for intelligent consumption is being rapidly unleashed. The application of "AI plus healthcare" and intelligent elderly care robots indicates that the intelligent economy is extending into people's livelihoods.
Overall, developing the intelligent economy is not just a technical issue but also a matter of changing the development model. It is not only reflected in efficiency improvements but also in a leap in the economic form itself.
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