AI to lift industrial upgrade, growth

"We see AI as humanity's tool, an exciting innovation that will help meet the sustainability goals and do more with less. Industrial technology, especially AI, can turbo-charge industries' progress toward efficiency and sustainability," Cui said.

For instance, the speed and scale of data analysis will be significantly improved by leveraging AI, which will help companies quickly assimilate new information and boost operational productivity, she said.

The United Kingdom-based company will deepen its cooperation with Chinese industrial enterprises and help them optimize production processes, improve product quality, and reduce energy consumption and costs by leveraging cutting-edge digital technologies including AI.

Cui said she is confident in China's ability to maintain its innovation capacity in breakthrough technologies in future with strong innovation capabilities and broad prospects for AI applications.

China's AI sector will make big strides in the next 10 to 15 years, with its market size reaching 1.73 trillion yuan by 2035, accounting for 30.6 percent of the global total, said market research company CCID Consulting.

China is not only a manufacturing powerhouse, but also a global innovation engine driving trends in digitalization, sustainability and high-tech industries, said Denis Depoux, global managing director of market consultancy Roland Berger. "What Chinese companies are super good at is usually adopting technology and making it practical."

It is quite critical for foreign companies to continue to invest in technological R&D in China, and there will be a lot of scientific discoveries and disruptions coming into innovation, Depoux said. He noted that AI is progressing very quickly in China, and DeepSeek is just one example as there will be another "DeepSeek" down the road.

"In the past decade, we have seen Chinese companies leapfrogging globally in many industries. China has made rapid progress in the development of AI technology, becoming one of the global leaders, and the pace will further accelerate. AI will unlock massive opportunities for our business," he said.

He said it is noteworthy that all or most of the LLMs of China are open-source. So, basically everybody can use them, including foreign companies, he said, believing that's contributing a lot to the growth of global AI industry, he added.

There is no doubt AI will continue to bring huge opportunities, yet the misuse of AI technology is also capable of creating serious worldwide risks and challenges.