2026 Annual AI Best Scenario Penetration Case Selection Launched | Recruitment

"A silent revolution is taking place. Its battlefield is not in the laboratory but right beside you and me."

Recently, there have been frequent moves in the AI field.

In December 2025, Meta announced the acquisition of the parent company of AI star - company Manus, Butterfly Effect, for billions of dollars. Its founder, Xiao Hong, became the vice - president of Meta.

In January 2026, Zhipu and MiniMax were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange one after another, winning the titles of "the world's first large - model stock" and "the AI company with the fastest IPO" respectively.

These moves are not accidental but signals from the capital market. Currently, the AI industry has gradually entered the "profit narrative" stage. Technologies that cannot deliver real value will be discounted or eliminated by the market.

Behind this is a shift taking place in the AI industry: the parameter race is ebbing, and the industry focus is gradually shifting from "technical feasibility" to "business implementation."

Under this trend, AI is accelerating its penetration into industrial and life scenarios, and technological breakthroughs and commercial value are starting to form a positive cycle.

Redefine technology with scenarios

The pioneers in the industry have long noticed this shift.

At the recent AGI - Next Frontier Summit, the technology leaders of several leading enterprises reached a consensus: The ultimate essence of AGI lies in serving real human needs and scenarios.

Another obvious trend is that more and more enterprises are giving up the "big and comprehensive" general fantasy and instead starting from vertical scenarios to build practical solutions.

In the field of intelligent vehicle manufacturing, by deeply integrating AI technology into the power system and intelligent driving algorithms, cars are evolving from traditional means of transportation into mobile intelligent spaces capable of continuous learning and self - evolution. With its full - stack intelligent solutions from assisted driving, intelligent cockpits to intelligent vehicle cloud services, Huawei has deeply empowered several mainstream domestic car manufacturers and helped the Chinese automotive industry transform and upgrade intelligently.

In the field of content production, AI technology is significantly lowering the creation threshold and promoting the industry to form an efficient closed - loop from production to monetization. Take Kuaishou as an example. It deeply applies AI to scenarios such as short - drama creation and e - commerce live - streaming, and realizes automated content production through video generation and intelligent editing, forming a complete ecological chain from creation, distribution to commercial conversion.

In the local life field, with the arrival of the Agent era, AI is no longer limited to text interaction on the screen but has the ability to complete the full chain of "planning - price comparison - decision - making - payment" in the physical world. In January this year, Alibaba Qwen app announced full access to its core ecological scenarios such as food delivery, payment, shopping, and travel. When ordering takeout, users no longer need to jump and can complete the whole process of recommendation, ordering, and payment within the Qwen app.

It can be seen that for most AI product developers, leading in technical parameters is no longer the only measure. In - depth understanding of demand scenarios, the ability to integrate with the industry, and the verifiability of commercial results are becoming more critical indicators.

Search for the "Best AI Scenario Penetration Case of 2026"

However, there are also concerns beneath the development.

On the one hand, the R & D on the technology supply side is booming, but it often has a gap with the most urgent pain points of the industry.

On the other hand, faced with a wide range of solutions on the demand side, it is difficult to distinguish their real effects and long - term value. Information asymmetry, difficult - to - quantify effects, and unclear value have become the "three barriers" hindering the deep penetration of AI.

Based on this, 36Kr officially launched the selection activity of the "Best AI Scenario Penetration Case of 2026", aiming to discover those AI application benchmark cases that truly solve industry pain points, generate real commercial value, and are replicable. Through public solicitation and systematic evaluation, we hope to discover the real implementation effects and commercial contributions of AI in specific scenarios and mark out a clear and reliable path for the advancement of artificial intelligence in the real world.

This selection innovatively adopts the "two - way application system." We encourage the R & D parties/users of AI products to apply jointly. Through cross - verification from both perspectives, we can present the application effects and industrial value of the cases more comprehensively and objectively.

At the same time, to ensure the accuracy and authority of this review process, 36Kr specially invited senior industry experts, well - known investors, and professional analysts to form a super - strong review panel. They will conduct comprehensive evaluations from multiple dimensions such as scenario penetration, commercial value, technological innovation, and replicability to select the Best AI Scenario Penetration Case of 2026.

Three highlights of this selection

Highlight 1: Special Tribute Award

We will set up a special award to pay tribute to the "lighthouse keepers" and "barrier breakers" who dared to explore and invest in the early stage of AI application implementation, paving the way for the industry, and focus on the "people" and "spirit" behind the technology.

Highlight 2: In - depth research on buyers' pain points

We will conduct a survey on the users (buyers) of AI products participating in the application, sort out the real decision - making logic, implementation pain points, and value evaluation system of each industry in the process of introducing AI, and form an "AI demand market map" to help technology providers empower more precisely.

Highlight 3: Conjecture on future AI scenario penetration

We will publicly solicit from the public "the AI - transformed scenarios you most expect." Based on a large amount of feedback, we will outline the key industries and future scenarios that AI technology is about to transform, providing a reference for the forward - looking layout of the industry.

Below is the application guide for the "Best AI Scenario Penetration Case of 2026."

This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr". It is published by 36Kr with authorization.