How AI is used differently in China

AI is not replacing white-collar jobs in China. At least not as much and not yet.

I have recently moved from Hong Kong to Shanghai. Having not lived in Mainland China since 2018 and having heard what an AI powerhouse China is aspiring to be, I found it fascinating that people are not encouraged and sometimes prohibited from using AI to improve their efficiency at work.

This was due to data protection concerns, specifically PIPL, I was told by a friend who works for an American company in Shanghai. I can only imagine the situation in state-owned companies. Further conversation with another friend who is now working for a Chinese state-owned company confirmed my assumption. “You are right, it’s not allowed.” Then who ARE using AI at work in China?

While I was in Hong Kong, the fear was palpable that AI is going to replace us or eliminate a lot of jobs at least. My friends in big banks, in asset management companies, or the crypto industry all told me how much AI can do at work and their team really don’t need that many people. Some medium-sized companies have “one person” departments; some team leaders are using the “information gap” to hide the fact that a few on their teams are not needed to protect the team members, or to simply sustain the headcounts.

Having experienced the potential impact of AI in Hong Kong. The workplace in China seems like it’s totally insulated from the AI storm. I have not seen much evidence that AI is taking the jobs of white-collar workers. I embarked on a journey to find out how AI is used in China. Here is what I found:

1.      Smart factories. Midea, a Chinese appliances manufacturer, uses AI to do product quality control; CATL, a Chinese battery manufacturer that supplies to EV makers such as Tesla and BYD, uses AI to manage its energy storage systems, etc.

2.      Financial risk control. China Merchants Bank is using AI in risk control, fraud detection, and quantitative trading.

3.      Infrastructure inspection. State Grid Corporation of China is using AI-enabled drones to inspect transmission towers, which are dangerous for human beings to climb on top of in the event of safety inspections.

4.      Healthcare. AI is being used in medical diagnostics and image recognition. Alibaba Health has developed its AI-enabled healthcare system.

5.      Government administrative work and city/traffic management.

6.      Last but obviously not least, I’m seeing a lot of passionate social media influencers demonstrating how they use AI to build tools or use AI agents to automate processes in their daily lives. However, this part of AI usage is not truly commercialized and stays at an individual level.

Are you seeing something different in China? How is AI being used in the workplace for white-collar jobs in other parts of the world? Keen to hear your thoughts!