Intelligent economy has been formally included in the Government Work Report for the first time, emerging as a prominent new term during the National People's Congress sessions. The report's proposal to "build a new form of intelligent economy" signifies China's official recognition of intelligent economy as the core direction for new quality productive forces, serving as both a key driver for their development and a critical breakthrough in economic transformation. This initiative opens up vast imaginative possibilities and provides robust support for socioeconomic advancement.
On March 5, during a briefing held by the State Council Information Office, Chen Changsheng, Deputy Director of the State Council Research Office and a member of the Government Work Report drafting team, stated that the report has included deployments for "AI+" for three consecutive years. The 2026 report marks the first proposal to build a new form of intelligent economy, representing a novel formulation aimed at seizing opportunities in artificial intelligence development. The goal is to expand the breadth and depth of AI empowerment across various industries, quickly open up new spaces for economic growth, and cultivate new models and strengthen new drivers.
Chen explained that "building a new form of intelligent economy" can be understood from three aspects: first, expanding large-scale applications to accelerate the integration of "AI+"; second, advancing open-source initiatives and accelerating the construction of open-source datasets and toolkits; third, strengthening the foundation for AI development through multi-path technological layouts and establishing AI innovation hubs.
The blueprint for intelligent economy is gradually unfolding, fundamentally representing a reshaping of productivity and reconstruction of business logic. This groundbreaking top-level design marks AI's transition from the "first half" of technological breakthroughs to the "second half" of deep integration with the real economy. It signifies a crucial shift in China's digital economy development from being platform-driven and data-driven to becoming intelligence-driven, establishing intelligent economy as the fourth major economic form following agricultural, industrial, and digital economies.
China's economy is currently at a critical juncture of transitioning between old and new growth drivers. Developing intelligent economy is both an inevitability of technological revolution and a necessity for high-quality development. Cao Peng, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of JD.com's Technology Committee, believes that intelligent economy has achieved deep integration of technology with data, computing power, electricity, and industries, evolving from "point assistance" to "comprehensive empowerment."
The next phase of intelligent economy development will focus not on pursuing parameters, computing power, or project quantity, but on enhancing output per unit of computing power, strengthening industrial application value, and building self-controllable technological systems, making AI a core engine supporting new quality productive forces.
Intelligent economy emerges at an opportune time as the core economic form of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It serves as a key vehicle for China to overtake in manufacturing and build new advantages in global digital economy competition, not only marking a new direction for China's economic transformation but also opening up trillion-yuan investment opportunities.
The State Council's August 2025 opinion on implementing the "AI+" action already outlined three-phase development goals for intelligent economy: achieving rapid growth in core industry scale by 2027, and becoming an important growth pole in China's economic development by 2030.
Huang Qunhui, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, estimates that while AI currently accounts for a small proportion of the economy, it should represent a significant share by 2030. Currently in a transition phase from萌芽期 to fermentation, intelligent economy's development will promote deep integration of AI technology with the real economy, digital infrastructure, and industrial ecology, upgrading intelligent technology from being a "tool" to becoming the underlying logic of economic development.
From an industrial perspective, advancing intelligent economy will drive intelligent transformation across entire industry chains, creating new development opportunities for both traditional manufacturing upgrades and emerging service industries. Li Yuecheng, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, stated that efforts will be made to promote mutual advancement between AI and manufacturing, accelerate the construction of industrial ecology for intelligent economy development, and make AI a core driving force for high-quality economic development.
The year 2026 marks the beginning of China's intelligent economy development, presenting both opportunities and challenges. Lin Zhiying, Deputy Director of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Cooperation Promotion Association, summarized four major contradictions in the current AI field: coexisting fragmented regulation and high corporate compliance costs; simultaneous existence of legally established ethics committees and their practical ineffectiveness; mismatch between data elements as "vehicles" and data ownership as "horses"; and conflicts between application pilot programs and multi-layer approval processes.
Huang Qunhui analysis indicates that developing intelligent economy requires multi-dimensional policy efforts, promoting technological innovation, business model innovation, and scenario development while balancing technological progress with employment substitution and income distribution to properly address related social issues.
As AI technology continues to advance and application scenarios expand, intelligent economy will become the core driving force for China's high-quality economic development, injecting new vitality and momentum. Cao Peng noted that China is currently at a critical transformation stage where intelligent economy is shifting from technological breakthroughs to deep industrial integration, and from scale expansion to efficiency improvement.
Lin Zhiying suggested that the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress should fully absorb governance experience throughout the entire cycle from legislation to law enforcement inspection to policy iteration, using high-level rule of law to establish foundations, provide safeguards, and enable empowerment for AI's new quality productive forces.
The Government Work Report's first proposal to "build a new form of intelligent economy" represents a significant strategic signal. However, intelligent economy is not merely a technological upgrade but a profound reconstruction of economic foundations. Its essence lies in AI's evolution from an "empowerment tool" to an "economic entity" driving value creation—a new economic form with AI as its core driving force that will comprehensively reshape all aspects of economic activities including production, distribution, exchange, and consumption.
During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, intelligent economy's contribution to GDP will complete the crucial transition from "incremental supplement" to "core pillar," injecting strong momentum for high-quality development. While developed from AI foundations, intelligent economy fundamentally differs from "AI+." If "AI+" represents adding intelligent "plug-ins" to various industries to solve point efficiency problems, then intelligent economy upgrades these "plug-ins" to become "built-in cores" of the economic system.
With policy implementation, infrastructure improvement, and ecological construction, intelligent economy will gradually become the main growth pole of economic development, using "intelligent transformation" to drive "quality transformation." Huang Qunhui believes that intelligent economy, based on AI as a general-purpose technology, changes production functions. It represents a new economic form driven by AI as the core and data as key elements, driving comprehensive socioeconomic transformation and upgrading.
Under the guidance of the "AI+" national strategy, intelligent economy infrastructure construction has begun to take shape, but fundamental layer support and ecological coordination challenges remain. Huang introduced that the "15th Five-Year Plan" proposal emphasizes focusing economic development on the real economy while adhering to intelligent, green, and integrated directions. The intelligent foundation will underpin processes including traditional industry transformation, future industry layout, strategic emerging industry development, and modern service industry integration.
As AI accelerates toward artificial general intelligence and superintelligence, intelligent industrialization and industrial intellectualization will become important growth poles, driving revolutionary leaps in productivity. Liu Qingfeng, Chairman of Iflytek, stated that AI is receiving unprecedented attention as a fundamental supporting force for national economic development and livelihood improvement during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. In the future, AI will break through traditional tool positioning to become new infrastructure, comprehensively reconstructing industrial organization and business operation logic, making "ubiquitous intelligence" a normal state of socioeconomic development.
Intelligent economy is accelerating its arrival as not just a hot topic during the NPC sessions but also as China's core engine for economic transformation. This represents an unmissable industrial revolution covering multiple tracks including computing power, manufacturing, terminals, and intelligent agents, pushing intelligent economy into the fast lane of development.
The Government Work Report's new formulation of "building a new form of intelligent economy" not only summarizes digital economy achievements over the past five years but also charts the core direction for economic development in the next five years. Qi Xiangdong, Chairman of Qi An Xin Technology Group, believes that in the intelligent economy era, "data is the blood, AI is the brain, and computing power is the heart."
The core of intelligent economy actually lies in the three elements of "data + computing power + algorithms," using AI technology to reconstruct entire chains of production, distribution, and consumption while following demand and revolving around scenarios. Any intelligent technology detached from public needs and practical scenarios becomes an "ivory tower."
Today, the rapid rise of intelligent economy profoundly influences socioeconomic development, having moved beyond conceptual范畴 to deeply integrate into daily life as tangible experiences. Intelligent transformation is quietly occurring. Cao Peng analysis shows that global AI has entered a value creation period. Leveraging its massive market and rich application scenarios, China has gained first-mover advantages at the application layer and now faces a historic opportunity to transform these advantages into full-stack competitiveness across computing power, algorithms, platforms, and applications.
This transformation is催生ing a series of new application scenarios covering AI phones, AI computers, smart homes, and intelligent manufacturing, not only changing lifestyles but also creating new development opportunities for enterprises. Zhou Hongyi, founder of 360 Security Technology, believes that AI has progressed from "chatting" to "value creation." As the key driving force for intelligent economy development, AI will further release innovation potential and cultivate more new growth drivers for China's economy through policy support, technological breakthroughs, and industrial applications.
Liu Yonghao, Chairman of New Hope Liuhe, emphasizes that traditional enterprises should actively embrace AI and new quality productive forces as an inevitable trend. Rather than anxiety, learning and participation are preferable. He stated that AI aims not to replace humans but initially to handle "dirty, difficult, and dangerous work," representing technological progress that improves lives.
Jin Dong, head of China Coal Mine Art Troupe, revealed he is learning AI applications, stressing the importance of "at least learning and mastering" the technology. For technological workers, AI represents a core high ground. As AI transitions from "showing off skills" to "practical application," it is changing lives at unprecedented speeds, with vast possibilities ahead.
Deng Zhonghan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated he is focusing on achieving leapfrog development in AI chips and related industries during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, striving for "extraordinary decisive victories."
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