Chinese firms to lead transformation and competitiveness in AI era

Chinese companies are likely to take the lead in transformation and competitiveness in the thriving artificial intelligence era, with the establishment of an AI mindset and the application of AI technologies in business management, said experts and industry leaders.

Edward Tse, founder and CEO of Gao Feng Advisory Company, made the remarks on Saturday at a forum in Shanghai, noting that AI will fundamentally disrupt industries and blur the industry boundaries as the technology empowers firms and people with various capabilities to cross different industries.

The AI technology is currently evolving at an unprecedented pace, creating opportunities for companies to new production modes different from those in industrial and internet eras. In such an AI era, an "AI mindset" of business leaders, which basically means embracing AI in all dimensions of an organization, is essential for business operations and management, said a white book released by the company.

It further elaborates that the AI mindset refers not only to the understanding of technologies, but also a comprehensive cognitive restructuring in business strategy, organizational structure, workflow, talent and corporate culture.

Industry experts pointed out that when AI becomes widely matured and popularized, firms will have easy access to enormous know-how both from internal and external worlds in real time. Thus, such accumulated experience and knowledge will no longer be the "core competencies" of businesses. Instead, the ability to constantly "generate knowledge" and "create ideas" will be key in the AI era.

"The real challenge for organizations in promoting the application of AI is not about the most advanced large models, but about the ability to transform their own data into knowledge and insights through continuous governance," said the white book.

Meanwhile, with the development of AI agents, people will likely coordinate with AI employees and companies will see changes in business workflow and processes. With the organizational structure in the AI era becoming flatter, middle management in the traditional organizations will be phased out. Compared with professional hard skills, people's abilities in critical thinking, creativity and communication will be more highlighted. For business leaders, they also need to become "thought leaders" to lead staff members in generating new ideas and explore innovation, experts said.

Even though most companies are still exploring AI transformation at early stages, business leaders attending the forum have reached the consensus that such transformation is essential for future business management.

Li Chengjie, vice-president and chief digital officer at Chinese dairy giant Mengniu, said she saw companies' competencies in the AI era lie in efficiency, data, pattern innovation and organizational structure optimization. Following continuous attempts of "AI in All" to utilize AI in various business scenarios and workflows, she advised on looking at the whole business management from the top with a perspective of "All in AI" to further drive transformation.

"AI transformation is undoubtedly obligatory for companies, and the question is about how to make it … The application and understanding of data is critical (in AI transformation). Even though AI may have learned most data in the world, it could barely understand the internal operational data in your own business. So the processing and utilization of such data will be extremely important. We need to find patterns hidden behind the data, and then extract the patterns and turn them into replicable abilities to drive business growth. Such abilities will be the core competencies of companies in the future," said Wu Zongxun, vice president and chief intelligent technology officer at Fosun International.