New Action Plan Sets AI Innovation as Top Priority for Platform Economy

A significant three-year action plan, jointly issued by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and six other ministerial bodies, charts a new course for the collaborative development of large and small enterprises within the platform economy. The plan, spanning 2026 to 2028, places artificial intelligence at the heart of its strategy.

Strategic Focus on AI Models and Intelligent Systems

The document explicitly guides major platform companies to strengthen their innovation layout in pivotal areas of AI, emphasizing:

  • General-Purpose Large Models: Fostering the continuous evolution and accessibility of foundational AI capabilities.
  • Industry-Specific Large Models: Encouraging the development of specialized models tailored for sectors like finance, healthcare, and manufacturing.
  • Intelligent Agents: Promoting advancements in AI agents capable of autonomous perception, decision-making, and task execution.

Concurrently, the plan calls for accelerated breakthroughs in core frontier technologies, including high-end chips, next-generation operating systems, and smart devices, with a push for rapid validation and commercial deployment.

Fostering a Collaborative Innovation Ecosystem

To achieve these goals, the plan outlines a multi-pronged approach to enhance synergy across the innovation chain:

  • Joint R&D Initiatives: Supporting platform firms, SMEs, universities, and research institutes in forming consortia to undertake major national science and technology programs.
  • ‘Challenge-Posting’ Mechanism: Incentivizing platform companies to post specific technical challenges, which specialized SMEs can ‘bid’ to solve, guiding SMEs to excel in niche technologies.
  • Boosting R&D Investment: Urging platform enterprises to establish mechanisms for steadily increasing innovation investment, benchmarking against global leaders to secure funding for foundational, original, and disruptive research.

These measures signal a strategic shift for China's platform economy, moving from scale expansion towards a quality-driven innovation phase powered by AI and deep collaboration between all market players.