China's AI Industry Shows Huge Development Potential with 49% of Surveyed AI Companies Facing Technical Talent Recruitment Challenges
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49% of surveyed AI companies face technical talent recruitment challenges
The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) today released key data from the 'Hong Kong Artificial Intelligence Industry Development Study'. The research was conducted in mid-2023, surveying 216 Hong Kong-based AI-related companies.
The study reveals that 49% of surveyed companies reported difficulties in hiring technical talent. Some companies have even reduced technical positions in Hong Kong, with 77% citing higher operational costs in Hong Kong and 41% attributing it to the lack of relevant technical talent in the region.
Financially, 51% of surveyed large enterprises reported profitability, while 31% of all surveyed companies achieved profitability. Regarding funding sources, 43% of companies included Hong Kong government grants, while 19% included venture capital/angel funding. In terms of cumulative investment amounts, 49% of companies invested less than HKD 1 million, 21% invested HKD 1-5 million, and only 4% invested over HKD 100 million.
In terms of revenue sources, 63% of surveyed companies reported income from Hong Kong, 19% from mainland China, and 15% from overseas.
Computing power poses a significant challenge. The study reveals that 44% of surveyed companies face the issue of "insufficient computing power." To address this, 71% are using cloud computing services, 31% utilize supercomputing centers in mainland China, and 26% opt for overseas supercomputing centers.
Artificial Intelligence Industry Gains National Attention
In recent years, China has released multiple policy documents such as the "Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Development of the New Generation Artificial Intelligence Industry" and the "Guidance on Accelerating Scenario Innovation to Promote High-Quality Economic Development through High-Level AI Applications." These provide crucial support for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence core technologies, product implementation, and exploration of new development models and pathways.
The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the application of new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence in supporting epidemic prevention and control efforts. In the context of epidemic prevention and treatment, artificial intelligence has played an extremely important role. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the application of artificial intelligence in the medical industry will accelerate, maintaining rapid growth over the next three years.
Artificial intelligence has become a crucial technological force in corporate digital transformation. As a branch of computer science, the field of artificial intelligence research includes robotics, speech recognition, image recognition, natural language processing, and expert systems.
Since its inception, artificial intelligence has seen increasingly mature theories and technologies, with its application areas continuously expanding. It is conceivable that the technological products brought by artificial intelligence in the future will serve as 'containers' of human intelligence.
The 2023-2028 China Artificial Intelligence Industry Panoramic Survey and Development Strategy Research Report published by the China Research Institute shows that China has set next-generation artificial intelligence as a key development target area.
The 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 lists next-generation AI as the primary target area for technological frontier breakthroughs.
The Next-Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan is the first national-level strategy that explicitly elevates AI to a strategic priority, emphasizing its significant impact on international competition, economic development, and social governance.
China's national artificial intelligence strategy has three key objectives:
- By 2020: Master leading AI technologies and applications, creating an AI industry worth over 150 billion yuan.
- By 2025: Achieve major breakthroughs in fundamental AI theories and develop world-class AI technologies and applications, increasing the value of core AI industries to 400 billion yuan.
- By 2030: Develop world-leading AI theories, technologies and applications, becoming a global AI innovation hub with core AI industry scale reaching 1 trillion yuan.
China's AI development holds tremendous potential for the future
Currently, China's new generation of artificial intelligence open innovation platforms are established with the support of Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent, iFlytek, and SenseTime, focusing on five key areas: autonomous driving, city brain, medical imaging, intelligent speech, and intelligent vision. Over the past few years, due to strategic prioritization and the efforts of domestic enterprises, China has become a globally recognized leader in the field of artificial intelligence. However, it is crucial to recognize that global competition in AI is just heating up, with the competitive landscape constantly evolving, and China must maintain a sense of urgency.
As a new hotspot and trend in AI technology, 'multimodal learning' is a key innovation area that various parties are competing to dominate. Multimodal AI can make high-level judgments by integrating data from images, sounds, and documents. The combination of big data and multimodal AI will drive significant transformations in AI technology.
The 'New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan' sets strategic goals, including achieving a core AI industry scale exceeding 1 trillion yuan by 2030. AI is increasingly becoming part of daily life in Chinese society, replacing human intervention in areas such as basic services, manufacturing, and healthcare.
In the field of smart manufacturing, the application of intelligent technology has greatly enhanced product inspection efficiency and equipment utilization. In smart education, many schools have built smart education cloud platforms based on technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence. Leveraging core applications like smart cloud classrooms, intelligent assessments, smart homework, mobile classrooms, and personal spaces, these platforms provide integrated solutions for students, teachers, parents, and education administrators. In smart healthcare, intelligent technology effectively reduces the workload of medical staff and improves the diagnostic accuracy and service convenience of medical equipment. Currently, over 40 Class III artificial intelligence medical imaging device certificates have been approved in China.
Recently, the Ministry of Science and Technology and five other departments issued a document aiming to create several major scenarios to expand the application of artificial intelligence, with high-level scientific research being one of them. Today, China's artificial intelligence technology is rapidly developing, with advantages in data acquisition, experimental prediction, and result analysis. Disciplines such as life sciences, mathematics, chemistry, and space science are embracing artificial intelligence. The rich application scenarios also feed back into technological development, driving the intelligent upgrading of industries.
In the future, for China's economy to achieve high-quality development, it is essential to vigorously promote the artificial intelligence industry. The AI industry has broad prospects and immense potential, but achieving breakthrough development is not an overnight task—it requires substantial effort.
With the intensifying competition in the AI sector, mergers, acquisitions, and capital operations among large enterprises are becoming increasingly frequent. Outstanding companies, both domestic and international, are paying more attention to analyzing the industry market, particularly in-depth research on the current AI market environment and trends in customer demand. This aims to seize market opportunities early and gain a first-mover advantage.
Adjusting business strategies promptly based on AI market demand provides strategic investors with accurate market intelligence and scientific decision-making support for selecting the right investment timing and corporate leadership planning.