Frost & Sullivan in collaboration with LeadLeo Research Institute releases 'White Paper on AI Empowering Every Industry'

In 2024, the scale of China's core AI industry exceeded 700 billion yuan, marking a critical stage in the rapid development of this strategic emerging industry. As the core engine driving new productive forces, artificial intelligence is deeply integrating into various fields of economic and social development through the dual drive of technological innovation and industrial implementation. Against this backdrop, China has deeply implemented the 'AI+' action, taking policy guidance, technological breakthroughs and scenario applications as the three pillars to accelerate the deep integration of artificial intelligence with the real economy, promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and cultivate new productive forces.

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis, LeadLeo Research Institute

China has built a complete artificial intelligence industry ecosystem covering the basic layer, technology layer and application layer. The scale of enterprise registration and patent applications has achieved explosive growth in recent years, firmly leading the world.

Since 2015, the number of financings in the AI industry has climbed from 501 to a peak of 1,024 in 2018, and then entered an adjustment period; it soared again to 1,076 in 2021. However, under the influence of the macroeconomic environment, it has declined year by year from 2022 to 2024, dropping to 696 in 2024, indicating that the market is tending to be rational. In terms of rounds and levels, the rapid evolution of cutting-edge technologies such as large models, AIGC and embodied intelligence has attracted capital for early projects relying on innovative technologies or unique business models; while there are still no monopolistic leaders in vertical fields such as healthcare and automotive, and a vast number of segmented scenarios are waiting to be developed, prompting investment focus to shift from 'technology verification' to 'business closure loop'. In 2024, financing in the application layer exceeded 50 billion yuan, accounting for 55%, and state-owned assets are gradually becoming an important driving force for investment and financing in the AI field.

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis, LeadLeo Research Institute

As of March 2025, 451 generative AI services across the country have completed filing, among which more than 80% are customized solutions for vertical fields and only 19% are general models, marking that AI applications are evolving deeply from 'general capabilities' to 'scenario-based implementation'. On the other hand, driven by the 'AI+' action, AI has widely empowered all industries, forming a pattern of 'in-depth application in leading industries and accelerated exploration in emerging fields'.

Among them, the penetration rates of AI applications in the financial and government affairs industries are the highest. In the financial field, AI optimizes risk management, intelligent investment advice and customer service, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy; in the government affairs industry, AI is relied on to achieve policy analysis, urban governance and intelligent supervision, promoting the efficiency of public services to leapfrog. Vertical fields such as telecommunications, healthcare, e-commerce, media, Internet, and industry are also in a high penetration stage: the telecommunications industry optimizes network operation and maintenance through AI and realizes customer service automation; in the healthcare field, breakthroughs have been made in disease diagnosis, personalized treatment and drug research and development; the e-commerce industry drives precise marketing and intelligent recommendations with AI; the media industry completes content creation and intelligent editing with the help of AI; the Internet industry realizes profound changes in product form and user experience with the empowerment of AI.

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis, LeadLeo Research Institute

Overall, 850 winning bids for To B-side large models have covered six typical scenarios including knowledge Q&A, intelligent decision-making, digital humans, intelligent operation and maintenance, intelligent programming and content generation, with a total scale exceeding 700 million yuan, reflecting that large models are moving from single-function attempts to systematic application implementation. Structurally, intelligent analysis and decision-making ranked first with 272 million yuan, showing its core position in high-value scenarios such as financial risk control and medical diagnosis; knowledge Q&A and platforms, as well as digital humans & customer service, followed closely with 158 million yuan and 170 million yuan respectively, highlighting the general penetration of large models in enterprise knowledge management and customer interaction fields; although intelligent operation and maintenance and intelligent programming are smaller in scale, they are becoming potential growth points due to directly improving production efficiency and R & D efficiency. The overall trend shows that large models on the To B side have entered the 'value realization' stage from 'concept verification', business models are gradually becoming clear, and a dual drive of efficiency improvement and value creation has been formed.

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis, LeadLeo Research Institute

The Chinese AI industry is accelerating into a new stage of full-chain collaborative development. From computing power chips, basic frameworks to large model platforms and vertical applications, the AI industry has formed a complete system of 'basic capabilities - platform services - application ecosystem'. Leading manufacturers such as Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent and SenseTime continue to lead in the fields of cloud services and large models. Representative enterprises such as iFlytek and LeapVox are deeply involved in intelligent perception and industry applications. At the same time, a number of innovative companies such as Zhongguancun KEGIN and Titanium Technology are rising rapidly in vertical scenarios such as finance, manufacturing, healthcare, education and e-commerce, promoting the dual drive of technological innovation and commercial value. This pattern not only highlights the clustering and systematic advantages of the Chinese AI industry, but also indicates that future competition will be more focused on diversified application implementation and the release of ecological synergy effects.

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis, LeadLeo Research Institute

As large models move from technological breakthroughs to industrial practice, enterprise services have become one of the most important implementation directions. Whether in the financial, manufacturing or government affairs fields, more and more institutions are exploring how to reshape business processes, improve efficiency and create value with the help of large models. In this process, a number of representative manufacturers with the advantage of combining technology and scenarios have emerged, providing replicable experience and paradigms for the industry.

Take Zhongguancun KEGIN as an example. From a technical perspective, Zhongguancun KEGIN has full-stack self-developed capabilities and a rich AI product line. Through self-developed AI technologies such as vertical large models, big data analysis and multimodal interaction, it has created the leading Dehu large model platform in the industry, covering the development and application capabilities of large models across the entire link including computing power, data, models and intelligent agents. From the perspective of commercial implementation, Zhongguancun KEGIN takes the three-level engine strategy of 'platform + application + service' as its core, focusing on high-value industries and scenarios such as finance, government affairs, industry, automotive and enterprise going global, creating vertical large model solutions covering multiple industries. It has served more than 2,000 leading enterprises in various industries, including 50% of China's top 100 banks, well-known central and state-owned enterprises, automakers, manufacturing enterprises, etc., with both scale and reputation leading in the industry.

Source: Frost & Sullivan analysis, LeadLeo Research Institute