Haier Biomedical Debuts AI-Powered Autonomous Lab at CMEF, Building an "AI Foundation" for Life Sciences

Deep News04-16

At the 93rd China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF), nearly 5,000 enterprises from over 30 countries and regions competed on the same stage. During the event, Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. collaborated with industry-academia-research-application ecosystem partners, including the Embodied Intelligence Committee of the China Information Industry Association, Guangzhou National Laboratory, Zidong Taichu, AUBO Robotics, and Alibaba Cloud, to host an AI strategy ecosystem co-creation event and an inauguration ceremony for its Shanghai R&D Center. The company unveiled the AutoLab Mind blueprint for autonomous laboratories, which upgrades laboratory equipment from "passive execution tools" to "autonomous intelligent agents," demonstrating how AI can evolve from a "tool" into a "productive force." Liu Gang, Co-CEO of Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd., announced at the event that the company will build "AI + automation" capabilities through the deep integration of AI+ with multi-domain scenarios, advancing the company's transition towards becoming a globally leading integrated life science tools and intelligent productivity platform.

AI is accelerating its implementation in life science scenarios, marking a leap from "point-based intelligence" to "systemic intelligence." Disclosures from the 2025 financial report indicate that after two decades of dedicated effort, Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. has transformed from a single-product cryogenic storage manufacturer into a comprehensive upstream life science enterprise covering cryogenic storage, smart medication management, blood technology, and laboratory solutions. Its products are exported to more than 160 countries and regions, with leading market shares in numerous countries. However, as the AI wave sweeps across the life sciences sector, Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. is moving beyond a "selling equipment" mindset towards creating deeper value.

At this CMEF, Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. systematically launched for the first time four integrated AI+ scenario solutions and multiple new AI+ automation products, covering the fields of biobanking, cell therapy, in-hospital medication management, and blood management. Taking cell and gene therapy as an example, its fully automated cell culture workstation, based on a self-developed large scientific model, can automatically complete the entire process including cell thawing, preparation, culture, and harvesting. Test data shows a 150% improvement in culture efficiency, cell viability consistently above 95%, and inter-batch variation controlled within 4%.

"Past industry practices involved combining AI with equipment," said Pan Zeyu, Head of Strategy at Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. "At a time when AI is reconstructing the methods of scientific discovery, we believe the more critical task is to truly integrate and reconstruct the scientific experimental workflow." Ni Yongquan, CTO of YingKang Life, explained the importance of AI for science from a technical implementation perspective, stating that future AI applications should represent an overall integration of the physical and data worlds. It is not a single product or function, but a systemic infrastructure that runs through equipment, processes, and decision-making. This cognitive leap from "point-based" to "full-process" stems from a deep understanding of life science scenarios.

Unlike the consumer internet's characteristics of "fast iteration and high error tolerance," life science scenarios impose near-stringent requirements for accuracy and safety. "Taking life science experimental scenarios as an example, their tolerance for errors in accuracy and safety is very low." More notably, there are subtle shifts in user demands. "Some users are not concerned about whether AI can complete 80% or 90% of a task, but rather, what happens in the 10% of cases it cannot complete – whether there are contingency plans or handling methods." This implies that life sciences require not "probabilistic intelligence" but "deterministic intelligence," making generalization capability the core challenge. "The formation of generalization capability must rely on continuous iterative training and optimization using massive data from specific, real-world scenarios," emphasized Ni Yongquan.

This is precisely where Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd.'s differentiated advantage lies. Leveraging the "real-world physical scientific scenarios" of its cooperative users, the company is building a comprehensive barrier combining "algorithm + scenario + compliance," a "moat" difficult for pure software or single hardware manufacturers to cross.

The Future Laboratory: Exponential Imagination Behind AI Evolution The most notable release by Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. at CMEF was the AutoLab Mind blueprint for autonomous laboratories – upgrading lab equipment from "passive execution tools" to "autonomous intelligent agents." Specifically, this blueprint comprises four types of edge-side intelligence: AI Intelligent Control (active adjustment based on neural network control models), AI Intelligent Vision (building a "perception-decision-execution" closed loop), AI Intelligent Core (intelligent scheduling and self-evolution), and AI Intelligent Research (data-driven precise R&D decision-making).

"The volume of usage by our internal customers has grown from the million level to the tens of millions, then to billions, and is expected to reach tens of billions within just a few months," shared Ni Yongquan, revealing a moment of "exponential growth" in AI capabilities. The driving force behind this growth is a fundamental shift in user perception. "People are discovering that AI can already perform many tasks previously thought impossible for it, so they are more willing to delegate tasks originally performed by humans to AI." Behind this "willingness" lies the evolution of AI's role from "tool" to "assistant" and then to "partner."

In Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd.'s vision for the future laboratory, experiment design is performed by AI, execution is handled by automated equipment, and data flows seamlessly through AI modules to form a complete closed loop. "Scientists can focus on more creative endeavors, on theoretical discovery and practice," Pan Zeyu depicted.

The "2025 China AI4LS Industry Development Blue Paper" released by Frost & Sullivan points out that AI for Life Sciences is accelerating the construction of a new type of scientific research infrastructure with data as the core production factor, and will continue to unleash enabling effects in various cutting-edge fields such as drug R&D, genomics, and synthetic biology.

The Shanghai AI R&D Center, announced during the exhibition, is also a key piece of Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd.'s AI strategy. "The purpose of establishing the Shanghai R&D Center is to fully leverage Shanghai's advantage as a talent hub, utilizing the world's top intellectual resources to focus on original technology and overcome key technical challenges," Ni Yongquan explained. At the event, Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. reached strategic agreements with partners including AUBO, Zidong Taichu, and Alibaba Cloud to jointly build an ecosystem co-creation platform integrating "AI + data + robotics + equipment + applications." This marks the upgrade of Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd.'s AI layout from "application-driven" to a new "technology-driven" stage. The R&D direction targets cutting-edge scientific scenarios – intelligent agents for cell culture, robot schools (world models), and dexterous hand-scheduled experimental processes, among others. "We need to position ourselves in those frontier tracks," Ni Yongquan emphasized.

The synergistic system formed with the Qingdao R&D Center, characterized by "top-level design + product implementation," ensures a complete closed loop from basic research to scenario application. This dual-center architecture addresses both the need for a "source of innovation" in frontier technology exploration and the capability for "rapid iteration" in scenario implementation.

From domestic substitution in ultra-low temperature technology, to industry leadership in IoT scenario solutions, and now to driving paradigm shifts in scientific research with "AI+" – on the long-distance track of AI for Science, Qingdao Haier Biomedical Co.,Ltd. is accelerating the arrival of the autonomous laboratory era with the power of its "AI foundation," paying tribute to the infinite possibilities of life sciences.

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