'AI+' Initiative Powers Intelligent Transformation

AI has become a critical variable reshaping the global industrial landscape. Against the sweeping trend of AI development, how will China's centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) leverage their inherent resource endowments to seize AI opportunities during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030)?

Dai Xi, director general of the bureau of planning and development of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), said at a recent press briefing that in recent years, SASAC has guided central SOEs to advance across application scenarios, data, computing power, models and ecosystems with the "AI+" special initiative, achieving multi-pronged and in-depth progress.

Progress includes accelerated rollout of application scenarios to frontline production, Dai said. SASAC has released around 100 benchmark strategic high-value AI scenarios for central SOEs, covering 20 sectors including industry and energy. These scenarios help address real operational bottlenecks and reshape business workflows.

For example, iron and steel enterprise China Baowu's AI furnace controller enables end-to-end AI management of batching, steelmaking, tapping and slagging, generating tens of millions of renminbi in annual economic gains.

Central SOEs continue to develop and aggregate industrial data, shifting dataset development from broad data accumulation toward vertical business empowerment.

Four data industrial communities for energy, transportation, low-carbon development and finance have assembled more than 1,000 high-quality datasets to better support the development of intelligent agents and industry-specific applications.

The quality and efficiency of intelligent computing infrastructure is continuously improving. SASAC has guided telecom operators to speed up the construction of intelligent computing clusters. Computing scheduling platforms such as Xirang and the Computing Network Brain can provide inclusive, green and secure token services.

Homegrown foundation models are delivering effective industrial empowerment. Based on self-developed Xingchen and Jiutai foundation large models, super-intelligent agents have been launched, driving central SOEs across industries to build over 100 industry-specific vertical models.

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, SASAC will balance development and security to seize new opportunities brought by the intelligent economy, Dai said.

It will consolidate industrial foundations, scale up investment and optimize the layout of computing networks, and deepen power-computing coordination and computing-network integration.

It will also accelerate AI application in the real economy. Focusing on industrial sectors, SASAC will continue building "AI+" industrial communities, and advance large-scale AI deployment on production frontlines.

Source: Science and Technology Daily