The development of innovative applications and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has been thriving in Chengdu City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, as local tech companies are leading all-out efforts to explore tech innovations.

At a local pilot production platform, multiple production lines are running in full swing on over 20 projects. One of them is an AI-powered traffic camera equipped with visual recognition technology which is nearing the market launch.

"Our order schedule has already been booked up through the third quarter of this year. There's a noticeable increase in AI products. We had only one or two AI projects during the same period of last year. But now, over half are related to large AI models," said Zhou Jiang, engineering and technology manager of the pilot platform of BIRVICE Technology.

Zhou said since February, the platform has tested new products every week, including those for smart healthcare, smart transportation, and service robots.

Just a few kilometers away at the Chengdu Science and Technology Ecological Island in Tianfu New Area, the research behind these pilot projects is taking place.

Operational for just over a year, the zone has already boasted nearly 1,000 registered tech companies and provides them with wide range of application scenarios particularly for humanoid robots.

Engineers are busy training robots. Some are test robotic arms' ability to sort objects, while others are training bipedal robots to climb stairs. There are also other innovations such as remotely controlled dexterous robotic hands and agricultural robots for weeding.
One robotics company is working at full capacity to accelerate the launch of its new products.
"We plan to launch robots for tourism in April, agriculture in May, and an updated 'Konka-1' robot for home healthcare in June. Our schedule is packed through the second half of the year. We will be very busy," said Chen Yang, deputy general manager of the Chengdu Robot Innovation Center.

Chengdu has established over 60 innovation platforms related to AI and robotics. In 2024, the industry's value exceeded 100 billion yuan, up 39 percent year on year, with computing power growing sevenfold. The Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Economic and Information Technology is actively working to further propel the industry.

"We have planned over 40 AI-related initiatives, mainly focusing on applications in industry, commerce, education, and healthcare. Our goal is to reach an AI industry scale of 130 billion yuan this year," said Jiang Wenling, deputy director of the AI Industry Department, Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Economic and Information Technology.