China's artificial intelligence industry is shifting from model development towards large-scale commercial and industrial applications, with AI inference volume surpassing training for the first time, according to a new industry report.

The report, released by the China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID) on November 31, said China's average daily token calls exceeded 175 trillion as of June 2026, up more than 1,000 times from early 2024. Meanwhile, the development cycle for leading large AI models has shortened from several months to just weeks or even days.

AI is increasingly being integrated into manufacturing, one of the key sectors driving its industrial adoption. China has established more than 500 excellence-level smart factories, covering over 80 percent of major manufacturing sub-sectors across 31 provincial-level regions.

Domestically developed computing technologies and large AI models are now being used in more than 20 industries, including steel and automotive manufacturing. They have been deployed in over 1,000 application scenarios, supporting new business models such as personalised customisation and full-lifecycle services.