The 2026 China International Big Data Industry Expo (Big Data Expo) was held in Guiyang, Guizhou Province from August 28 to 30, showcasing how AI is accelerating toward practical, mass-producible, and scalable applications across industries.
Over three days, 372 Chinese and international enterprises exhibited, 89 events were held, and 87 significant achievements were released. The expo demonstrated that AI industry development logic is shifting from focusing on model parameters to emphasizing practical implementation effectiveness.
Southern Power Grid presented drone inspection technology with defect identification accuracy exceeding 90%, reducing what previously took one person a full day to just 30 minutes while eliminating safety risks. An AI elderly care robot made its debut, capable of autonomous route planning, obstacle avoidance, and providing companionship, item retrieval, and health monitoring functions.
The expo highlighted the emerging concept of "token factories" - new AI infrastructure that enables enterprises to access tokens on-demand like utility services, paying based on actual usage. This dramatically lowers the threshold for enterprises to develop AI applications, transforming computing power advantages into AI industry competitive advantages.
The Guiyang Big Data Exchange, China's first, has attracted over 1,000 data merchants and 360 data intermediaries, having released the nation's first data trading rule system and price calculator for data products.
However, experts noted that AI still faces challenges including insufficient high-quality data in vertical industries, incomplete professional token libraries, high costs for scaling certain application scenarios, and the need for improved safety compliance systems.
Source: People's Daily
