Smart manufacturing 

Many Chinese companies have already set their eyes on smart manufacturing enabled by AI technology. During the congress for instance, a number of tech moguls addressed various forums, including Alibaba founder and Chairman Jack Ma, JD Group Chairman and CEO Richard Liu, IFLYTEK Co. Ltd. Chairman Liu Qingfeng, 360 Group Chairman Zhou Hongyi, Haier Group CEO Zhang Ruimin and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou. The companies they lead are all bellwethers of China's smart manufacturing progress. At the congress, these entrepreneurs elaborated on industry trends and their company's smart strategies.

JD Group's Liu is undoubtedly one of the most famous young entrepreneurs in China today. He transformed a small store in Zhongguancun in Beijing, China's Silicon Valley, into one of the largest e-commerce giants in China thanks to a decade of rapid development of the Internet economy.

In recent years, JD Group has embraced AI technology, experimenting with delivering goods with robots and unmanned aerial vehicles, and offering AI technology in customer services.

For e-commerce enterprises, logistical systems are extremely important. Liu said that 57 percent of JD Group's product orders are processed by robots and other AI applications rather than humans, including procurement, inventory management and sales forecast.

"This is a very complex system. Our 2018 goal is to have 94-95 percent of stock-keeping units managed by AI technology, from the procurement process to pricing, goods transfers between storages and replenishment management," said Liu. He said he is confident about the future, which he believes will leave more time for humans to pursue higher goals.

"With the dawning of the AI era, people should spend most of their time creating spiritual wealth. The creation of material wealth should be entirely left to robots and other AI technology. People can spend more time pondering philosophical issues, engaging in art and other things they like," Liu said.

He concluded his speech by saying, "When the intelligent age comes, people's attitude and adaptation to changes will determine their future."

Compared with other entrepreneurs running Internet companies, Haier Group's Zhang may appear to be a bit traditional. The group is the most internationally well-known household appliance enterprise in China.

This huge business is facing a strong challenge from new technology. But Zhang is not conservative, he welcomes new technology. During his address at the congress, he explained how Haier Group applied Internet of things technology before other companies in the industry, and how its management model was upgraded to adapt to the new technology.

He said he believes that the intelligent era promises an opportunity for Chinese firms, especially those lagging behind that can change lanes and overtake others by adopting new technology.

Foxconn's Gou has undoubtedly created a legend in the public eye. His company prospered by supplying parts to Apple Inc. But the first thing Gou said while speaking at the congress was that Foxconn was no longer just the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of a dozen years ago. The company has incorporated Internet and other smart technologies in the production process. He said that Foxconn's production machines were all connected to the Internet and were capable of producing dozens of megabytes of data in a day. Moreover, the company developed its own voice operating system.

Foxconn has long been striving to go beyond its OEM status with Apple, and the intelligent era provides a great opportunity to do so. Gou said he advocates an "8K+5G" (8K resolution plus 5G network) strategy, donning a red baseball cap bearing the word "8K" at the congress, which has become his signature attire.

Gou also said that he believes that the potential market for the industrial Internet is huge. In his speech, he said, "The number of people, machines and things connected by the industrial Internet is far greater than the number of people connected by the consumer Internet platform. The value of the industrial Internet platform will be far greater than the consumer Internet one." He predicted that by 2020, the number of devices connected to the Internet of things will exceed 50 billion. By 2025, the industrial Internet will create an economic output value of $82 trillion, which is one half of the global economic aggregate.