From algorithms to assembly lines: AI resets industries in Davos spotlight

A guest interacts with a robot during the Cultural Soiree of the 16th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, in north China's Tianjin Municipality, June 25, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Amid bustling crowds at the Summer Davos Forum in north China's Tianjin, an AI-powered interactive installation has captured the attention of curious attendees, who pause to observe and interact with the technology.

In front of the huge screen, an oil-painting-style visual experience seamlessly blends people's figures with Tianjin's ecological scenery and cultural heritage.

The interactive installation epitomizes the global surge in AI, which has empowered a vast number of industries worldwide. AI has been a recurring theme at the Summer Davos for years, but groundbreaking advancements such as the latest ChatGPT iterations, AIGC developments and China's impressive DeepSeek models have propelled AI onto center stage.

"AI will bring a new industrial revolution. All products and businesses will be reshaped," said Gong Ke, research lead for the 2025 Summer Davos topics, adding that nowadays, intelligent and green technologies are transforming traditional industries while creating vast new demands.

The top 10 emerging technologies of 2025 released at the Summer Davos Forum are expected to achieve real-world impact within three to five years. Collaborative sensing and generative watermarking are among the 10 breakthrough technologies to watch.

"These technologies need to be deployed everywhere, so everybody can benefit from these technologies," said Javier Garcia-Martinez, professor of University of Alicante in Spain.

In recent years, the development of AI in China has been remarkable. Yan Bing, the vice dean of the School of Economics at Nankai University, said that China's AI industry exceeded 700 billion yuan (about 97.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, sustaining over 20 percent annual growth for years, and the applications of AI spanned manufacturing, healthcare, urban governance and many other areas.

"China is driving global transformation with innovation and digital momentum," said Yan.

Cao Bin, chairman of Fitow (Tianjin) Detection Technology Co., Ltd., said that they could analyze over 30 types of real-time data with AI and make a digital twin system simulation within one minute. The solution has already been adopted by many automakers nationwide.

In parallel with improvements to the basic model and product experience, AI has become more and more user-friendly, showing its practical value in complex emergency scenarios, said Shen Dou, the executive vice president of Baidu.

The Chinese government work report released earlier this year called for the extensive application of large-scale AI models and the vigorous development of new-generation intelligent terminals and smart manufacturing equipment, including intelligent connected new-energy vehicles, AI-enabled phones and computers, and intelligent robots.

Today, traditional industries in China are also embracing AI.

Unlike the traditional dusty and messy factory, the prefabricated component factory of Lanzhou-Hezuo Railway was clean and intelligent. At the factory, 5G-connected robotic arms transported materials and stacking robots arranged components with precision.

"Producing 5,300 prefabricated parts daily, the smart line quadruples traditional efficiency," said Gao Hongyi, the project manager at China Railway 18th Bureau Group.

There is a lot of curiosity in the world around the innovation ecosystems of China, particularly around the energy transition, the overall energy ecosystem, and also high technology, said Mirek Dusek, World Economic Forum Managing Director.