Economic Watch: Multinationals plug into China's AI-powered future

SHANGHAI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- From factory floors to logistics hubs, global corporations are embedding China's artificial intelligence (AI) into their real-world operations -- and bringing these innovations to the global stage.

Earlier this month, PwC China launched its AI Innovation Center in Shanghai. The center helps clients chart practical roadmaps for AI adoption and navigate the many complexities associated with digital transformation.

A recent PwC study places China in the top tier globally for AI deployment effectiveness in the real economy. According to Liu Yaxiao, who heads the new center, a growing number of overseas clients are now voluntarily adopting China's open-source AI ecosystem when upgrading their digital operations.

The PwC findings are borne out by cosmetics giant L'Oréal. In its Suzhou smart fulfillment center, the group's first such facility globally, smart sorting systems and AI-powered packaging optimizers help the hub process 7,000 consumer parcels per hour, and ensure that 99 percent of its orders are processed within 48 hours.

In Shanghai's Pudong New District, another L'Oréal facility -- an AI-powered packaging innovation hub -- can turn consumer insights into design concepts in seconds, a process that once took weeks to complete.

Vincent Boinay, president of L'Oréal North Asia and CEO of L'Oréal China, points to China's AI ecosystem -- its rapid iteration cycles, vibrant homegrown innovation, strong policy backing, and a growing talent pool -- as the driving force behind the company's AI push in the country.

Beyond back-end support, AI is now stepping into the driver's seat for global firms in China. Siemens offered a glimpse of that shift on July 18, when it debuted Eigen Engineer Agent, an AI agent for industrial automation engineering, at the 2026 World AI Conference in Shanghai.

Eigen was already at work before the official launch, deployed on an electric vehicle brake assembly line at CASMT (Changzhou) Automation Co., Ltd. Engineers there can simply tell the agent what they need in plain language, and it takes care of the rest. On that line, programming time is cut by roughly 30 percent, with equipment debugging time decreased by a similar margin.

Vasi Philomin, executive vice president and head of Data and AI at Siemens, said China's complete manufacturing system, its scale and speed of technology deployment, and the openness of local manufacturers to innovation all provide fertile ground for AI to grow. He believes AI will become a core force driving industrial transformation in the country.

Behind this growing embrace of AI by global firms is a policy environment that has kept pace. From national strategies to local initiatives, recent policy measures have given foreign companies greater confidence to tap into China's AI opportunities.

In Shanghai, rules issued early this year encourage foreign-funded research and development centers to invest in high-growth areas like intelligent terminals and embodied intelligence. Shenzhen adopted similar measures late last year to attract foreign companies to set up innovation facilities in the city.

In July, the National Development and Reform Commission and other government departments released an action plan to strengthen international AI collaboration.

The action plan, according to Liu, offers a clear framework for AI governance. It balances safety and rule-building with open collaboration, and its compliance-driven approach will ultimately benefit global industrial upgrading, Liu said.

David Blair, vice president of the Center for China and Globalization, said China's diverse manufacturing sectors -- particularly the highly competitive industrial clusters along the southeastern coast -- will generate even more AI applications in the years ahead, through open and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Einar Tangen, a senior fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, said China has pursued a win-win approach in AI development. He noted that the country has been sharing its AI resources and technologies with the Global South, while also helping global companies tap into new opportunities emerging from China's AI push. ■