As the core driving force of a new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, artificial intelligence is profoundly changing production and lifestyles and reshaping industry competition.

In recent years, Anhui has actively seized the “AI + everything” opportunity, issued multiple action plans for the AI field, upgraded and implemented the General AI Policies 2.0, and pushed to take a leading role in the country’s new round of AI development. In 2025, Anhui ranked fifth nationwide in AI industry development, behind only Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang.

Strengthening Foundational Capabilities and Intensifying Technical Research

“When a tea tree gets sick, we used to call an expert. Now you just snap a photo, upload it to the large model, and it immediately identifies the disease and even prescribes a remedy!” This “Tea AI Brain,” led by Professor Wan Xiaochun, director of the National Key Laboratory for Tea Germplasm Innovation and Resource Utilization, is called the “Luyu Tea Industry Large Model” and possesses fully independent intellectual property rights.

Wan told reporters that the model includes over 40,000 tea‑related publications and more than 50,000 gene entries, with text data exceeding 10 million characters and parameter scale reaching the hundreds of billions. It links self‑built tea genome, tea compound, and tea chemistry & health databases and covers core knowledge units such as tea encyclopedias, the tea industry, tea cultural tourism, tea culture, and tea science and technology — amounting to the knowledge of a “tea library.”

“Currently, its Q&A accuracy exceeds 85% and pest and disease recognition surpasses 90%. It can identify diseases from images, infer flavor from aroma, assess quality by process, and translate classical texts into plain language,” Wan said. The next 2.0 version will refine the model’s integrated applications in tea breeding, pest and disease control, processing techniques, quality appraisal, and tea culture dissemination.

In recent years the province has continuously intensified large‑model R&D. Besides the tea industry model “Luyu,” Anhui has supported Conch Group in developing the world’s first cement and building materials industry large model and backed iFlytek’s joint large‑model efforts with Huawei, achieving breakthroughs in 22 bottleneck areas such as toolchains and communication components. Currently, the province has over 140 large models. In the past three years, 128 AI R&D projects were launched with total investment of RMB 6.73 billion and over RMB 1.2 billion in provincial support.

On computing power and data, the province’s intelligent computing capacity grew from 838 P at the start of 2023 to over 48,000 P today. Anhui was approved as a national comprehensive pilot zone for data elements; the provincial data exchange established a dedicated AI zone, built 138 high‑quality industry datasets, and amassed 2,457 TB of labeled data.

Innovative Approaches to Attract Enterprises and Facilitate Landing

In the Ma’anshan Software Park office area, researchers at Ma’anshan ShenCe YunKong Technology Co., Ltd. are closely monitoring screens, focusing on tuning algorithm parameters for their “industrial self‑learning agent” project.

This company forged a close tie with Ma’anshan through the National General AI Competition. “In 2024 the team entered the AI + Industrial Manufacturing track of the National General AI Innovation Application Competition held in Ma’anshan. The city’s industrial background matched our project well — it’s ideal soil for technology deployment,” said Lan Qiqi, ShenCe YunKong’s core leader. Relying on the park’s intelligent computing center, the team can quickly access compute resources to ease early‑stage “compute anxiety” and shorten the technology iteration cycle.

Now ShenCe YunKong has planned collaborations with multiple local Ma’anshan enterprises and intends to promote its industrial agent technology across more process‑industry scenarios.

Using competitions to attract investment is an important strategy for the province. Since 2023, Anhui and the China Computer Federation have jointly organized the National General AI Competition for three consecutive years, with participant numbers rising each year and the quality of matched projects improving annually.

In 2025 the National General AI Competition spurred six cities — Hefei, Wuhu, Ma’anshan, Bozhou, Huainan and Huangshan — to host special tracks. A total of 605 domestic and international teams competed, 69 high‑quality projects accelerated implementation, attracting a 19% increase in participating teams and a 38% rise in investment‑attraction projects. HiDream.ai, attracted after the inaugural competition, has become an emblematic AI enterprise in the province.

Comprehensive Layout to Improve the Industrial Ecosystem

As the core AI area of Hefei and the main carrier of Anhui’s AI pilot zone, Hefei High‑Tech Zone is vigorously building the “China Voice Valley” centered on iFlytek. Today, more than a hundred AI innovation platforms have been established, including the National New‑Generation AI Open Innovation Platform for Intelligent Speech and the National Intelligent Speech Innovation Center. Models and products such as iFlytek Spark, Guochuang Software GC‑GPT, and Atom Echo have been put into use. The zone now hosts over 1,500 AI companies spanning the full industry chain across foundational, technical and application layers.

Beyond Hefei and Bengbu, multiple Anhui localities are accelerating coordinated deployments to fully capture the AI industry track. Ma’anshan is developing Turing Town and software parks, gathering over 150 AI firms; Bozhou is building an “AI + Traditional Chinese Medicine” application hub; Huangshan hosted the national competition’s “AI + Cultural Tourism” track to help digitize Huangshan’s entire tourism sector.

The data speak for themselves: in 2025, the province’s AI enterprises above designated size achieved revenue of RMB 246.55 billion, a 14% increase — tying for the fastest growth among emerging industries. Investment grew by 28.3%, while investment in key statistical projects surged 103.3%, ranking first and second respectively.

Anhui is accelerating on the new AI track with a clear path and solid steps. Going forward, the province will continue to promote deep integration of AI with the real economy, and keep advancing its nationwide position in artificial intelligence.

Source: Anhui Daily