Dai Yongbo, Co-chairman of the Organizing Committee of the AI Agent 2025 Competition: Discover New AI Heroes and Build a New Intelligent Ecosystem | 36Kr 2025 AI Partner Conference for All Industries

On August 27th, the 2025 AI Partner Conference for All Industries, jointly hosted by 36Kr and the China Europe International Business School, grandly kicked off at the Zhongguancun Software Park in Beijing. The theme of this conference is "Chinese Solutions", which is divided into two major chapters: "Chinese Solutions" and "Who Will Define the Next AI Era". Focusing on four major topics, namely "The Golden Moment of Chinese Innovation", "Can Super Intelligent Agents Become the Core Form of the Next Generation of AI?", "Chinese Solutions Reshape the Global Technological Competition Landscape", and "The Prosperous Scenario of the Integrated Innovation of AI and All Industries", the conference comprehensively presented the latest breakthroughs and ecological systems of Chinese AI, shared the growth path and future prospects of Chinese-style AI, and explored the innovation model of Chinese solutions.

On that day, Dai Yongbo, the co-chairman of the Organizing Committee of the AI Agent 2025 Competition, delivered a keynote speech titled "Discover and Serve the New Human Heroes in the AI Era".

The following is the content of the speech, edited by 36Kr:

Good afternoon, dear guests!

Thank you very much for the invitation from the organizer, 36Kr. I'm Dai Yongbo, the co-chairman of the Organizing Committee of the AI Agent 2025 Competition. The core theme I want to share with you today is: How to accurately discover and whole - heartedly serve those "new human heroes" who will define the future in the AI era.

In the past few years, artificial intelligence technology has rapidly moved from the laboratory to the market and has become the core force in changing human lifestyles and industrial structures. According to the national "AI +" strategic plan: By 2027, AI will be widely applied in six key areas, and the penetration rate of intelligent agents and new terminals will exceed 70%; by 2030, this proportion will exceed 90%, and the intelligent economy will become a new growth pole of the Chinese economy; by 2035, we will fully enter a new stage of the intelligent economy and intelligent society.

From the steam engine liberating human labor, electricity lighting up civilization, to the Internet connecting the world, AI is taking over the baton of general - purpose technology and becoming the most disruptive "underlying operating system" of this era. It will be the biggest beta of the entire era, driving all industries to complete in - depth reconstruction and upgrading.

However, there are also huge uncertainties hidden in this technological wave:

On the one hand, the explosion speed of AI applications far exceeds our imagination. Nearly a thousand new AI applications are launched on the App Store and Google Play every month. This "exponential emergence" ecosystem makes us feel as if we are in the "species explosion of AI applications".

On the other hand, the technology iteration speed is extremely fast. New architectures and algorithms emerge in an endless stream, and continuous breakthroughs are being made in cutting - edge directions such as cross - modal fusion, reinforcement learning, and autonomous intelligent agents, driving the leap of AI capabilities from "perception" to "cognition". Today's "black technology" may become a basic tool tomorrow; yesterday's "impossibility" may have been realized by a startup team today.

In the fierce collision between certainty and uncertainty, looking back at history: Whenever humanity faces a technological paradigm shift, various competitions are often effective means to promote innovation and unite forces. From the space race in the 20th century to recent autonomous driving challenges and algorithm competitions, they have all inspired a large number of innovative achievements in a short time and nurtured teams and figures that lead the era. Similarly, in the AI era, a high - profile AI competition is undoubtedly one of the best choices to follow the trend and seize opportunities.

The AI Agent 2025 Competition was born under such a concept. This competition is hosted by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence and is open to global AI innovators. We are honored to invite seven international top - notch scientists and industry leaders, such as Ni Mingxuan, Andrew Ng, and Shen Xiangyang, to form the highest - level judging panel.

In terms of the competition system, we have made a revolutionary innovation: We adopt a long - term cyclic competition system, holding touring competitions throughout the year on a rolling basis. The registration never closes, allowing teams to continuously iterate their products and participate in the competition multiple times. "Winning once" is no longer the end but a new starting point. The offline touring semi - finals are the key stage for projects to step into the spotlight, enabling excellent projects not only to stand out but also to be widely seen and recognized under the attention of the public and the industry.

Since the registration channel opened on July 21st, we have received more than 500 participating projects from around the world. These projects demonstrate the most real and cutting - edge forces in AI entrepreneurship: 37 projects have self - developed large - scale models and expert model bases; more than 45% of the projects choose to be publicly released to the market for the first time on our competition platform; they cover 21 industry tracks, including industrial manufacturing, financial services, cultural and creative industries, health, marine economy, and new energy; 25% of the participants come from non - AI backgrounds. They combine in - depth industry knowledge with the inclusiveness of AI, transforming real business pain points into innovative products and services, allowing us to see the creativity brought by technological equalization.

We firmly believe that this competition will become the highest - level AI event in China and even the world. The competition is not only committed to "discovering heroes" but also focuses on "empowering and achieving heroes". Our greatest mission is to provide full - life - cycle, butler - style empowerment services for AI entrepreneurs and developers in the early stage of the technological revolution cycle in the next twenty years, helping them grow into new heroes leading the next stage of AI.

In the AI entrepreneurship track, technical support is the most important foundation:

We not only provide computing power support and developer tools but also help teams obtain high - quality data sets, improve the efficiency of model training and inference, and accelerate the exploration of new - form applications.

At the same time, we focus on the overall planning and sharing of intelligent computing power, enabling more teams to obtain inclusive, efficient, and secure resources at a low threshold, truly realizing the rapid implementation of innovative ideas.

At the application level, we promote the new models of "model as a service" and "intelligent agent as a service", helping teams quickly verify, make trial - and - error, and grow in industry scenarios.

It can be said that technical support is not just about providing resources but also about creating an innovative soil where "models, data, computing power, applications, open - source, and talents" are fully coordinated.

In the AI era, a single - point technological breakthrough is far from enough. What really matters is to form an "ecological connection". We hope to connect entrepreneurs and developers into a complete intelligent product ecosystem through the competition and the platform:

For entrepreneurs, technology and products are the foundation for their survival, but they also need to be "seen" to enter the market. Therefore, we provide systematic brand marketing support, from event planning to full - channel brand exposure. Whether it is media communication, cooperation with technology KOLs, or appearances at large - scale industry events, we help teams gain the attention of the market, capital, and users in the shortest possible time, enabling innovators to be "heard, seen, and recognized".

If the ecological connection helps entrepreneurs find application scenarios and brand exposure helps them gain attention and customers, then the "incubator" is an important accelerator for them to go global. We hope to truly turn artificial intelligence into an open resource that benefits all mankind through the incubator. This is not just about providing funds and venues but also about building an ecosystem of "equal rights, mutual trust, diversity, and win - win cooperation". Entrepreneurial teams can obtain comprehensive support in computing power, data, talents, etc. here, smoothly access the global market, and cross geographical barriers.

At the same time, the incubator will also become the forefront of promoting global cooperation and governance. We will cooperate deeply with international organizations and industry institutions to keep in line with technical standards and governance rules. When helping teams deal with risks and challenges, we ensure that they are safer, more reliable, and more sustainable.

Therefore, this is not only a place for incubating startups but also an acceleration platform for promoting the inclusive sharing of AI and building a global ecosystem.

Dear friends, today we are standing at a new historical juncture. AI is no longer just a research result in a technology laboratory but will profoundly change the global economic and social order in the next twenty years. The more than 500 participating projects represent more than 500 kinds of imaginations about the future. We hope to join hands with all entrepreneurs, developers, investors, and industry partners to jointly discover and serve the new human heroes in the AI era, and turn imagination into real productivity.

Thank you all!