Boao Asia Forum Participants Discuss the AI Era

Securities Times Reporter Wu Shaolong

From the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to industrial integration, and then to global inclusivity, the Boao Forum for Asia 2026 Annual Conference sub-forum “Entering the AI Era: Seizing Opportunities to Create the Future” was held on March 26. Guests at the meeting outlined a clear path for industrial development in the AI era, from the value gap in AI investment to the core logic of industrial transformation, from the trend of large-scale technological innovation to the development of human-machine collaboration, providing key ideas for enterprises to seize opportunities and respond to challenges.

AI Transformation Requires Moving Beyond Superficial Attempts

As AI becomes the core driving force of global industrial transformation, enterprises’ AI strategies have fallen into a predicament of “high investment, low returns.” Dai Pu, co-president of Roland Berger’s global management committee, stated that after surveying about 200 companies last December, they found that over 90% of enterprises were very disappointed with their AI investments. “We call this the ‘AI value gap,’” Dai Pu stated, adding that enterprises are in a state of “blind flying,” lacking a unified AI strategy and failing to achieve a complete process reconstruction, ultimately making it difficult to realize actual value.

Qian Kun, senior vice president of Qualcomm, stated that artificial intelligence is at a critical juncture, transitioning from frontier technological exploration to deeply reshaping industries and production methods. AI is continually evolving in reshaping human-machine interaction interfaces and intelligent experience, with terminal systems beginning to “see what you see, hear what you hear, understand what we read and write, and communicate with us through natural language,” giving rise to a new generation of personal AI terminals.

Guests generally believe that the current development of large language models has reached the ceiling of diminishing marginal returns, and merely pursuing model iterations is unlikely to achieve breakthroughs. The next stage of AI development is to move from the virtual world of text and charts to the real-world scenarios of perceived physical spaces, allowing technology to integrate into production factors and perceive actions in unstructured real environments, which also becomes the core focus for enterprises in AI transformation.

The Core of Technological Empowerment is Reconstructing Rules

The integration of AI with traditional industries has never been simply “technology + industry.” In this transformation, enterprises from different fields have explored unique paths to bring AI from the laboratory to various industries, truly converting it into productive force.

Fang Rong, chairman of ZTE Corporation, believes that the integration of AI and traditional industries has redefined industrial rules. What enterprises need to do is to seize the high ground with an intelligent core, safeguard their foundation with digital sovereignty, and build a solid future through human-machine collaboration.

At the conference, Qian Kun shared Qualcomm’s practices and reflections on promoting AI technology development, accelerating commercialization, and achieving large-scale application. He stated that Qualcomm continues to build a user-centered intelligent ecosystem, promoting the evolution of smart terminals and accelerating the transformation of breakthroughs in AI technology into scalable products and experiences. Additionally, Qualcomm will launch the “AI Acceleration Program” in 2025, aiming to promote the large-scale application of AI technology across various industries, relying on Qualcomm’s robust industrial-grade platform and strong computing capabilities.

Zhou Rui, chairman of the French Bridge Think Tank, stated that one of the biggest changes brought by AI is the “mixing” of different industries, which creates enormous opportunities but also unprecedented complexity. “This requires investors, shareholders, and regulators to think strategically; they must truly understand their own industry and other related industries to avoid becoming a second-tier industry inferior to AI.”

Using Technology Integration to Promote Global Inclusivity

At the meeting, in response to the common anxiety of “Will AI replace humans?”, the guests provided a unified answer: the ultimate value of technology is to empower people, not to replace them. Human-machine collaboration, where each plays their strengths, is the beautiful vision of AI industrial development.

“Focus on how many people’s value AI amplifies, rather than how many people it replaces,” Fang Rong stated, emphasizing that AI can exert maximum marginal effects in fields with complex processes and low tolerance for errors, while competition in human-machine collaboration capabilities will be the ultimate barrier in future AI industry competition.

Xiang Huangmei, vice president of Alibaba Group, believes that technology and AI are not just about vast opportunities but can also contribute more to the everyday lives of people. “Thanks to China’s large online population, mature payment systems, and rich application scenarios, these form the three major soils for the realization of ‘AI + consumption.’”

From a global development perspective, Zhou Rui suggested that promoting global inclusivity in AI requires integrating technology into local environments and achieving customized development, while also establishing a credible AI learning certification system to ensure returns on investment and user voice for emerging economies in AI development.

(Edited by: Zhang Xiaobo)

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