Artificial intelligence, as the most popular cutting-edge technology at the moment, will be combined with boosting consumption, the top priority of the strategy to expand domestic demand. What kind of business blue ocean will be opened?
Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and other eight departments issued the “Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of “Artificial Intelligence + Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”), which proposed 17 specific measures focusing on five aspects, including increasing the consumption of artificial intelligence + commodities and expanding the consumption of artificial intelligence + services, aiming to promote the introduction of artificial intelligence into thousands of households and thousands of stores, and better meet the people’s needs for a better life.
At present, artificial intelligence is developing rapidly. From large language models, intelligent robots to autonomous driving technology, there are constant waves of technological innovation, which continue to refresh people’s imagination of the future.
However, technological breakthroughs do not equate to commercial success.
A new technology can only unleash its greatest value when it leaves the laboratory and enters public life.
At present, the real problem faced by the industry is that those dazzling artificial intelligence technologies are still far away from large-scale commercial application, and the huge investment of enterprises in research and development has yet to be converted into actual market value.
Take humanoid robots as an example. On the Spring Festival Gala stage in the past two years, humanoid robots danced flexibly and completed difficult movements, which opened the eyes of netizens. Behind this are continuous breakthroughs in core algorithms, intelligent control, and bionic technology.
But in fact, the vast majority of humanoid robot products still stay in B-end environments such as laboratories and factory production lines.
For ordinary consumers, such high-end artificial intelligence products are still visible but unused technological symbols, and technological innovation has not yet been transformed into civilian value.
From this perspective, the issuance of the “Opinions” comes at the right time.
The “Opinions” do not generally encourage innovation, but work from both supply and demand sides.
On the supply side, we push companies to come up with more breakthrough products; on the demand side, we provide guidance and provide real consumption scenarios to give artificial intelligence a clearer direction for commercialization.
From a macro perspective of industrial development, the “Opinions” make up for the limitations of enterprises’ spontaneous exploration. Through 17 specific and executable measures, it clearly delineates key scenarios and development directions for technology implementation, and provides clear guidance for enterprises’ subsequent innovation investment and commercial promotion.
The development of any industry is inseparable from the positive interaction between technological innovation and market demand, and the artificial intelligence industry is no exception.
The “Opinions” start from both the supply side and the demand side, and provide specific implementation paths.
On the supply side, it is clearly proposed to “promote the consumption of artificial intelligence robots” and accelerate the application demonstration of new artificial intelligence products such as elderly care robots, companion robots, and artificial intelligence life assistants.
This means that humanoid robots will move from laboratories and factories to consumption scenarios such as homes and communities, providing elderly care, companionship and other services. It also requires corporate R&D innovation to start from real market needs and optimize product functions.
On the demand side, the “Opinions” broadened the application scenarios of artificial intelligence, not only limited to traditional smart hardware consumption, but also went deep into the field of service consumption, proposing five major scenarios: home, elderly care, cultural tourism, accommodation and catering, and education, and provided specific measures such as research on incorporating smart homes and service applications into “good house” construction guidelines.
These measures are conducive to guiding the commercialization of artificial intelligence companies, and also meet the people’s livelihood needs of the current society.
For example, as the aging of the population intensifies, the traditional elderly care model faces problems such as manpower shortages and rising costs. Applying artificial intelligence to health monitoring, companion care, and even having humanoid robots provide services in person can improve the quality of elderly care services and achieve inclusive technology.
In addition, artificial intelligence + wholesale and retail, e-commerce, logistics and distribution and other implementation scenarios close to people’s livelihood can activate the consumption potential of artificial intelligence, inject new growth momentum into the domestic consumer market, and achieve the effect of boosting domestic demand.
It is worth mentioning that the “Opinions” also mentioned the need to “increase financial and other financial support” and encourage local governments to independently formulate and implement subsidy policies within the framework of the consumer goods trade-in policy, which provides financial incentives for the commercialization of artificial intelligence.
By continuously expanding application scenarios based on technological innovation, the artificial intelligence industry will have greater room for development.
It can not only release technological dividends, serve consumers, and stimulate consumption potential, but also accumulate a large amount of real data, promote algorithm optimization and product iteration, and form a virtuous cycle.
Of course, the large-scale application of new technologies in the consumer field will also bring risks and challenges.
For example, the impact on employment, the strong substitution of artificial intelligence may affect some manual labor, mental labor and service positions. When policies promote the implementation of artificial intelligence, labor force transformation and re-employment issues need to be considered.
In addition, artificial intelligence will obtain a large amount of personal data when providing personalized services. If data collection, storage, and use are not strictly regulated, consumer privacy and security will be threatened.
Relevant departments need to improve data security and privacy protection mechanisms and clarify the boundaries of corporate data processing so that consumers have no worries.
In general, under the global AI boom, the promulgation of the “Opinions” has opened up a broad space for the commercial application of artificial intelligence, which is conducive to activating consumption potential, promoting technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and accelerating the cultivation of new productivity.
Next, we must promote the accelerated implementation of artificial intelligence while maintaining the bottom line of safety, so that the dividends of technological innovation can truly benefit thousands of households.
