Tools & Platforms
AI role key in stimulating consumption
Fast-evolving artificial intelligence is expected to foster new consumption growth drivers and inject strong impetus into China”s consumer market as this cutting-edge digital technology is spearheading a technological revolution and industrial transformation to drive economic growth, said experts and company executives.
They said that commercial use of AI in e-commerce and home appliances will not only improve the consumer shopping experience and merchants’ operational efficiency, but also create new consumption scenarios and bolster product sales.
Their comments came as a State Council executive meeting in July approved a guideline on implementing the “AI Plus” initiative, calling for vigorously advancing the large-scale commercial application of AI and boosting its accelerated popularization and deep integration across various fields of economic and social development.
Major e-commerce platforms are scrambling to leverage AI-powered virtual hosts in livestreaming sessions to introduce products and spur purchases. These virtual hosts can mimic human facial expressions and movements, and interact naturally with consumers while promptly answering their queries.
A digital human mimicking Liu Qiangdong, Chinese e-commerce giant JD’s founder, appeared in the company’s livestreaming rooms to promote a variety of merchandise, including meats, edible oils, eggs, milk, air conditioners and TV sets.
The AI anchor almost perfectly replicated Liu’s expressions, body language, gestures, voice and accent. His avatar generated over 20 million views within the first hour and raked in 50 million yuan ($6.96 million) in sales throughout the real-time broadcast session.
Tmall, Alibaba Group’s business-to-customer e-marketplace, offers consumers personalized guidance and advice with its AI-powered customer service chatbots, while online discounter PDD Holdings uses AI tools to analyze market trends and optimize sales strategies.
“The use of AI-powered virtual hosts in e-commerce livestreaming can bring a feeling of freshness to users, while brand owners can attract new consumers via this innovative method,” said Mo Daiqing, a senior analyst at the Internet Economy Institute, a domestic consultancy.
Mo said AI will change the way people purchase by providing interactive shopping experiences and promoting the digital transformation of traditional retailers.
“It is vital that Chinese retailers deepen their customer engagement. AI tools can energize customer retention efforts, enabling e-commerce players to hyperpersonalize their engagement with consumers and create bespoke shopping experiences for them,” said James Yang, head of consulting firm Bain & Company Greater China’s retail practice.
Meanwhile, leading consumer electronics and home appliance makers are racing to incorporate AI technology into manufacturing, products and services. Zhou Yunjie, chairman and CEO of Haier Group, said, “At present, the deployment of AI in enterprises mainly concentrates on manufacturing, research and development, sales, procurement and services.”
Zhou said the integration of AI models with home service robots and terminal devices will create new growth drivers for the global consumer electronics industry, adding that his company has promoted the application of AI in a wide range of fields like smart homes and industrial internet.
Hisense Group said its Xinghai large language model has a deep integration with Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, and with enhanced deep thinking and reasoning abilities, its smart TVs could better understand user demands.
The rise of AI technology will offer better human-machine interaction capacities and boost the intelligent transformation of the home appliances sector, while unleashing consumption potential, said Liu Fei, research director of the consumer electronics department at Beijing-based market consultancy All View Cloud.
Hong Yong, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the new type of consumption is mainly driven by technological advancements in AI, with a focus on consumers’ personalized and diversified needs.
“Nurturing an AI-driven new consumption model is pivotal to expanding domestic demand, driving industrial upgrades and promoting high-quality economic growth,” Hong said.
fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn
This article originally appeared on TVW News.
Washington’s top K-12 official is asking lawmakers to bankroll a statewide push to bring artificial intelligence tools and training into classrooms in 2026, even as new test data show slow, uneven academic recovery and persistent achievement gaps.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal told TVW’s Inside Olympia that he will request about $10 million in the upcoming supplemental budget for a statewide pilot program to purchase AI tutoring tools — beginning with math — and fund teacher training. He urged legislators to protect education from cuts, make structural changes to the tax code and act boldly rather than leaving local districts to fend for themselves. “If you’re not willing to make those changes, don’t take it out on kids,” Reykdal said.
The funding push comes as new Smarter Balanced assessment results show gradual improvement but highlight persistent inequities. State test scores have ticked upward, and student progress rates between grades are now mirroring pre-pandemic trends. Still, higher-poverty communities are not improving as quickly as more affluent peers. About 57% of eighth graders met foundational math progress benchmarks — better than most states, Reykdal noted, but still leaving four in 10 students short of university-ready standards by 10th grade.
Reykdal cautioned against reading too much into a single exam, emphasizing that Washington consistently ranks near the top among peer states. He argued that overall college-going rates among public school students show they are more prepared than the test suggests. “Don’t grade the workload — grade the thinking,” he said.
Artificial intelligence, Reykdal said, has moved beyond the margins and into the mainstream of daily teaching and learning: “AI is in the middle of everything, because students are making it in a big way. Teachers are doing it. We’re doing it in our everyday lives.”
OSPI has issued human-centered AI guidance and directed districts to update technology policies, clarifying how AI can be used responsibly and what constitutes academic dishonesty. Reykdal warned against long-term contracts with unproven vendors, but said larger platforms with stronger privacy practices will likely endure. He framed AI as a tool for expanding customized learning and preparing students for the labor market, while acknowledging the need to teach ethical use.
Reykdal pressed lawmakers to think more like executives anticipating global competition rather than waiting for perfect solutions. “If you wait until it’s perfect, it will be a decade from now, and the inequalities will be massive,” he said.
With test scores climbing slowly and AI transforming classrooms, Reykdal said the Legislature’s next steps will be decisive in shaping whether Washington narrows achievement gaps — or lets them widen.
TVW News originally published this article on Sept. 11, 2025.
Microsoft says its new $30bn (£22bn) investment in the UK’s AI sector – its largest outside of the US – should significantly boost Britain’s economy in the next few years.
Its package forms a major part of a $31billion agreement made between the UK government and various other US tech giants, including Nvidia and Google, to invest in British-based infrastructure to support AI technology, largely in the form of data centres.
Microsoft will also now be involved in the creation of a powerful new supercomputer in Loughton, Essex.
Speaking exclusively to the BBC Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told the BBC of the tech’s potential impact on economic growth.”
“It may happen faster, so our hope is not ten years but maybe five”.
“Whenever anyone gets excited about AI, I want to see it ultimately in the economic growth and the GDP growth.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the US-UK deal marked “a generational step change in our relationship with the US”.
He added that the agreement was “creating highly skilled jobs, putting more money in people’s pockets and ensuring this partnership benefits every corner of the United Kingdom.”
The UK economy has remained stubbornly sluggish in recent months.
Nadella compared the economic benefits of the meteoric rise of AI with the impact of the personal computer when it became common in the workplace, about ten years after it first started scaling in the 1990s.
But there are also growing mutterings that AI is a very lucrative bubble that is about to burst. Nadella conceded that “all tech things are about booms and busts and bubbles” and warned that AI should not be over-hyped or under-hyped but also said the newborn tech would still bring about new products, new systems and new infrastructure.
He acknowledged that its energy consumption remains “very high” but argued that its potential benefits, especially in the fields of healthcare, public services, and business productivity, were worthwhile. He added that investing in data centres was “effectively” also investing in modernising the power grid but did not say that money would be shared directly with the UK’s power supplier, the National Grid.
The campaign group Foxglove has warned that the UK could end up “footing the bill for the colossal amounts of power the giants need”.
The supercomputer, to be built in Loughton, Essex, was already announced by the government in January, but Microsoft has now come on board to the project.
Mr Nadella, revealed the investment as Donald Trump has arrived in the UK on a three-day state visit
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