AI Drives High-quality Evolution of China’s Digital Economy
According to China Economic Net, digital economy has become a core pillar supporting China’s socioeconomic progress, serving as a fundamental driver for industrial upgrading, economic efficiency improvement and social optimisation. As the national economy enters a critical phase of quality transformation and model innovation, the in-depth application of artificial intelligence technologies enables the digital economy to shift from extensive expansion to refined, high-quality growth.
The early development of the digital economy prioritised scale expansion and market coverage, relying on digital infrastructure penetration and online business proliferation to achieve quantitative growth. This traditional development model focused less on resource utilisation efficiency, industrial connotation and long-term development potential. The rapid iteration of artificial intelligence is reshaping industrial operation logic across all sectors, prompting the digital economy to pursue intensive growth characterised by higher efficiency and diversified innovation.
Artificial intelligence empowers industrial progress through three core attributes. Its technical advantages streamline operational procedures, replace repetitive manual work and fully unlock data value, substantially improving overall industrial productivity. As a key production factor, AI integrates scattered data resources, facilitates the efficient allocation of resources across industries and governance scenarios, and consolidates the foundation for stable economic operation. Its innovative nature also breaks traditional industrial boundaries, fostering intelligent manufacturing, research and service formats to inject sustained endogenous momentum into industrial upgrading.
Three internal mechanisms underpin AI’s empowering effects on industrial development. Industrial penetration enables comprehensive digital transformation for traditional sectors, covering intelligent simulation in research, automatic regulation in production and data-driven optimisation in operational management, effectively raising industrial added value. Resource integration mechanisms eliminate data and industry barriers, optimise resource allocation and eliminate inefficient operational links to boost overall economic operational efficiency. New business incubation mechanisms reshape consumption and service scenarios, creating customised consumer experiences and intelligent service systems to cultivate new growth drivers.
Multiple practical pathways support the deep integration of AI and the digital economy. Continuous breakthroughs in core algorithms and underlying infrastructure strengthen independent technological capabilities and resolve structural technological bottlenecks. Expanded industrial application scenarios promote intelligent transformation across agriculture, manufacturing and service industries, unlocking the full potential of technological empowerment. Optimised computing power infrastructure, including data centres and edge computing nodes, delivers stable and cost-effective technical support for large-scale AI deployment.
Talent cultivation also underpins long-term industrial development. Optimised university discipline systems and enterprise practical training programmes nurture interdisciplinary professionals proficient in digital technology and industrial expertise, bridging the talent gap in industrial intelligent upgrading.
As a core technology of the new digital era, artificial intelligence continues to optimise the industrial structure, operational efficiency and innovation vitality of China’s digital economy. In-depth technological iteration and scenario integration will further consolidate the steady development of the digital economy and underpin the high-quality advancement of the national economic system.
