As artificial intelligence accelerates its deep integration with the real economy, the production models and economic structures of the manufacturing sector are undergoing profound changes, gradually becoming a key variable driving industrial upgrading and reshaping the development landscape of industries.
Recently, the city-wide on-site promotion meeting for "AI + Manufacturing" and the special event on "AI + R&D and Design" were held in Pinghu. Leaders from the city's economic and information systems and relevant enterprise representatives gathered to discuss application scenarios in key areas of manufacturing, such as design and R&D, pilot testing, production, marketing services, and operational management. The aim is to promote the deep integration of AI technological innovation with industrial innovation, enabling a two-way empowerment between AI technology and manufacturing applications.
"Efficiency Miracles" Unfolding in Manufacturing
Upon entering ShiShi Technology (Pinghu) Co., Ltd., the first sight is the company's headquarters under construction, featuring an ultra-intelligent computing fusion platform. Inside the exhibition hall, a wide array of customer products are neatly displayed, showcasing the company's impressive achievements.
Founded by a research team from the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, ShiShi Technology focuses on the industrial application of domestic supercomputing and intelligent computing, leveraging computing power networks and core technology R&D. In 2024, the company relocated its headquarters to the second phase of the Zhichuang Park in Pinghu Economic and Technological Development Zone, aiming to become a leading computing infrastructure service platform in China. It is projected to achieve cumulative revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan by the end of 2026.
"Artificial intelligence is not about solving intellectual problems but about liberating productivity, breaking down data barriers, and enabling more talent to engage in creative rather than repetitive production," said Lai Zhesen, Board Secretary and CFO of ShiShi Technology. In his view, the AI boom is essentially a computing boom. ShiShi Technology enhances efficiency by empowering through AI and optimizing computing power network scheduling.
In one project, the company's software runtime was excessively long on homogeneous machines, causing test results to take hours or even days, which hindered daily development needs. This necessitated a transformation to heterogeneous computing. After optimization, the company achieved a 200-fold acceleration with a single CPU+GPU compared to CPUs alone, and a 4-fold acceleration with 8 GPUs compared to 160 CPUs, significantly boosting production efficiency.
Compressing industry design cycles from "weeks" to "hours" is the design speed achieved by Pinghu SheJie Technology Co., Ltd.
Entering POP SheJie · Pinghu Design City, the fashion-forward runway show provides the most direct visual impact. Walking along the indoor pathways, locally produced down jackets, luggage, and strollers from Pinghu catch the eye. Many of these products have been designed using artificial intelligence.
As Pinghu SheJie's flagship product, the AI ZhiHui Intelligent Design Platform integrates AI intelligence with the professional depth of textile and apparel design, offering a full-process AI solution from creative inspiration to finished products. It supports various input methods, such as text descriptions, hand-drawn sketches, and image inspiration, closely aligning with designers' natural workflows. Embedded with production parameters like fabric styles and accessory details, the platform ensures that design drafts can directly interface with production. Features like virtual fitting and image-to-video conversion further significantly reduce marketing costs.
"For example, if we want to design a shirt, we can first input basic requirements into the platform, then refine and adjust based on the generated solutions. A unique design plan can be quickly developed," explained Cheng Peizhao, General Manager of Pinghu SheJie Technology Co., Ltd. The platform improves development efficiency by up to 30 times and reduces design costs by at least 50%, helping down jacket enterprises accelerate the transformation of "traffic trends" into "commercial products."
The "efficiency miracles" achieved by ShiShi Technology and SheJie Technology are not isolated cases in Jiaxing.
In recent years, Jiaxing has successively introduced the "Implementation Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Artificial Intelligence" and the "Action Plan for Advancing 'AI+' (2025–2027)," establishing a relatively comprehensive policy and operational framework. The innovative application of "AI + Manufacturing" has already demonstrated positive development momentum.
Contributing the "Jiaxing Solution" to AI Development
In Jiaxing, artificial intelligence has deeply integrated into all aspects of manufacturing:
Shenfu AI Technology's AI application "Hua Yi Yi" has popularized professional clothing R&D technology, attracting over 3,000 accessory enterprises and generating over 100 million AI-designed styles annually.
Yidixi AI employs a "dual-wheel drive" strategy to empower the entire clinical R&D process, continuously improving the efficiency of new drug development.
Projects such as Huaxin Integrated Circuit's intelligent material handling system and Hengye Electronics' full-process smart meter manufacturing system have been selected as provincial-level AI case studies.
The efficient operation of artificial intelligence relies on robust computing power support.
To date, Jiaxing has established three computing power centers: "Wuzhen Light," Runze Phase I, and Runze Phase II, with a total operational computing power of 118,000 P, accounting for over 60% of the province's computing power scale. Among these, Pinghu Runze has deployed 14 ten-thousand-card clusters, making it the largest single high-performance computing power center in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Additionally, four ongoing projects, including China Telecom, China Mobile, Alibaba, and Runze Phase III, are expected to add 168,000 P of computing power. Once completed, these will position Jiaxing's intelligent computing capabilities at a nationally leading level. In March of this year, Jiaxing was selected as one of the first cities for the national "Millisecond Computing" special initiative, providing strong foundational support for advancing "AI + Manufacturing."
Since 2022, Jiaxing has promoted digital and green transformations through a combination of "point-line-surface" approaches. Currently, the number of enterprises with a digitalization level of 3.0 or higher ranks second in the province. Key indicators, such as the penetration rate of production digitalization, the proportion of digital talent, and the numerical control rate of industrial equipment, all rank among the top in the province, providing rich application scenarios for the implementation of AI technology.
"Advancing 'AI + Manufacturing,' we have the foundation, the conditions, and the capability!" said a relevant official from the Jiaxing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology. Overall, the development of "AI + Manufacturing" in the city has a solid industrial foundation and has achieved certain results, with significant potential for future growth. However, compared to neighboring cities like Suzhou and Ningbo, there are still some challenges and difficulties in deepening the transformation from "digitalization and greenization" to "AI+."
Moving forward, various regions in the city will seize the opportunity to compete for the second batch of provincial-level pilot projects for AI-enabled manufacturing. Leveraging Jiaxing's manufacturing advantages and solid foundation in "digitalization and greenization" transformations, tailored approaches will be adopted to create an upgraded version of these transformations. Efforts will continue to advance manufacturing from digitalization to intelligence through the "point-line-surface" method.
"As the 'home' for enterprises, the economic and information departments will go all out to provide services and assistance for enterprises exploring and practicing AI-enabled manufacturing, accelerating the implementation of AI technology in the city's industrial manufacturing enterprises," said the official from the Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.
According to the plan, Jiaxing aims to cultivate a group of "AI-savvy, industry-familiar" enabling application service providers within three years. It will explore the deep application of general large models in the manufacturing sector, develop a batch of specialized industry models and high-level industrial intelligent agents, and select over 100 AI application benchmark enterprises and over 100 typical AI application scenarios. The goal is to contribute the "Jiaxing Solution" to the development of artificial intelligence.
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