Special Topic: 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference & the Second Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo. The 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference was held in Shanghai from October 20 to 22, under the theme "Building a Resilient Future Together: Global Governance, Innovation-Driven Growth, and Industrial Upgrading." Ye Rongrong, Chairwoman of Fujian Yihong Waterfront Technology Equipment Co., Ltd., said in her speech that "thanks to AI, it has brought down the threshold of the entire software development process, whether in terms of efficiency or cost—it has lowered the technology barrier."
Ye Rongrong introduced that Yihong Waterfront is transforming from traditional yacht manufacturing toward intelligent, new-energy yacht smart equipment. The unmanned driving and smart cabin technologies for yachts involve hardware, environmental perception, intelligent decision-making, and algorithm analysis. Yachts are small-batch, personalized custom products, and unlike automobiles, they cannot spread R&D investment across large-scale production. In the past, implementing such technologies required enormous investment and involved a very high threshold. Relying on modular large models, visual recognition systems, and integrated software-hardware development, R&D costs can now be kept under control. In the past, developing a smart unmanned yacht took as long as two to three years; now it can be compressed to several months up to more than ten months, with investment controlled at the million-yuan level, making the launch of new products a reality.
In her view, the value of AI's technological democratization is reflected on both the industrial side and the consumer side. On the industrial level, it greatly lowers the threshold for applying smart technologies, helping enterprises break through the ceiling of their original product innovation. On the consumer side, as R&D and operating costs decline, it directly changes the label of yachting as "unattainably expensive." She gave an example: an unmanned driving cruise boat project deployed in Guangzhou, aimed at scenic area operators, uses unmanned driving to reduce high labor and maintenance costs, allowing tourists to experience a chartered boat tour for just over 200 yuan. For private boat owners, a yacht previously required more than 200,000 yuan per year to hire personnel for maintenance, and "can afford to buy a boat, but cannot afford to keep a boat" was a common pain point. Smart yachts act like a waterborne butler, relying on AI to achieve automated management, lowering the barrier to use, and giving more families the opportunity to enjoy waterfront leisure experiences.
"For us, AI technology is not just about efficiency improvement; it can directly change the boundaries of our business expansion," Ye Rongrong said. AI enables traditional manufacturing enterprises to commercialize cutting-edge intelligent technologies and broadens the development space of the industry.
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