Chinese generative AI to account for a third of industry’s economic value by 2035, Beijing think tank says

A research unit affiliated with China’s industry ministry predicts generative AI in China will produce US$4.2 trillion in economic value in the next 12 years

The manufacturing, retail, telecoms and healthcare industries are leading adoption of these technologies, the group said, which have been proliferating in China

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An AI sign seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 6, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:00pm, 15 Dec 2023

Chinese generative artificial intelligence (AI) will contribute 30 trillion yuan (US$4.2 trillion) worth of economic value, out of the industry’s 90 trillion yuan globally, by 2035, a Beijing think tank affiliated with China’s industry ministry predicted in a report.

In the near term, China’s generative AI market is expected to reach 10 trillion yuan this year as adoption accelerates across traditional industries, according to a summary of the report by the CCID Group, a research unit affiliated with Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), that was widely reported by the state media this week.

The adoption rate of generative AI – the technology driven by large language models like those powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT – has reached around 15 per cent in China, according to CCID. Manufacturing, retail, telecoms and healthcare are the four major areas driving the application of such technologies, Zhou Debao, an AI analyst for CCID, was quoted as saying by state broadcaster China Central Television.

The retail and telecoms industries led the use of AI with adoption rates of 13 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, followed by 7 per cent and 5 per cent for healthcare and manufacturing, Zhou said.

Since San Francisco-based start-up OpenAI launched the viral ChatGPT bot at the end of 2022, China has seen a boom in similar technologies.

Incumbent Big Tech players including search engine giant Baidu, social media behemoths Tencent Holdings and ByteDance, and AI specialists SenseTime and iFlyTek have all jumped on the bandwagon and launched rival offerings for the domestic market.

The companies have been piloting the use of AI across their organisations and promoting it to potential clients as having the ability to boost efficiency.