Editor’s Note
This article highlights Changzhou District’s strategic push to integrate AI into its core industries, aiming to boost efficiency and drive industrial modernization.
Delegate Yang Zhengpei stated that Changzhou District is deeply implementing the “Artificial Intelligence+” action, focusing on key industrial sectors such as stainless steel and artificial gemstones, to significantly enhance overall industry production efficiency, effectively reduce enterprise operational costs, and accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading. The district closely follows the autonomous region’s development path of “R&D in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou + Integration in Guangxi + Application in ASEAN.” It also actively integrates into the “Bay Area R&D + Wuzhou Intelligent Manufacturing + National Market” model for scientific and technological achievement transformation, deepening collaborative innovation with the Greater Bay Area and continuously strengthening cooperation with organizations like the Chinese Society for Metals and the Materials Research Society.
In recent years, Changzhou District has focused on promoting the transformation and upgrading of pillar industries and the renewal of traditional industries, leading manufacturing towards high-end, intelligent, and green development to achieve “quality improvement, cost reduction, and efficiency enhancement.” Simultaneously, the empowerment of artificial intelligence has been extended to diverse scenarios such as agriculture, culture and tourism, commercial logistics, social governance, and public services, comprehensively promoting intelligent upgrades across all economic and social sectors.
Delegate Yang Zhengpei introduced that in terms of intelligent manufacturing upgrades, three leading enterprises in the Changzhou Stainless Steel Products Industrial Park—Jinhai, Yongda, and Xinfeng—have continuously upgraded their intelligent equipment, entering the advanced ranks of industry digitalization.
In terms of scenario expansion, smart agriculture has achieved precise management. For example, an edible mushroom cultivation base, utilizing an AI environmental control system, has achieved a unit yield seven times higher than traditional models. AI visual inspection technology has been applied to the primary processing of Liubao tea, increasing the premium tea rate by 12%. Commercial logistics and digital applications have achieved “acceleration,” with algorithm-optimized warehousing and distribution increasing sorting efficiency by 40% and reducing logistics costs by 15%.
The year 2026 marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Delegate Yang Zhengpei stated that Changzhou District will base itself on Wuzhou’s positioning as an “Eastern Integration” hub and gateway, deepen cross-regional collaboration, build an interconnected intelligent manufacturing hub, adhere to internal and external linkage, and continuously expand development space. The district will focus on “AI+Manufacturing,” promoting the comprehensive integration of AI technology into the entire production, management, and service processes of the stainless steel industry, and empowering the entire production and processing workflow of gemstones—including raw material polishing, cutting, quality inspection, and classification—to forge new competitive advantages for the industry. It will also expand the boundaries of AI empowerment, extending it comprehensively to areas such as culture and tourism, agriculture, public services, and grassroots governance, to build a development ecosystem of “AI+All Industries.”