SHENYANG, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) — The 2025 Global Industrial Internet Conference concluded on Monday in Shenyang, the capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, having seen Chinese and international guests issue a call for open cooperation to share in the new opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI).

The conference brought together government and business representatives from over 10 countries, including Brazil, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia and China, spanning sectors such as mobile communication, AI and high-end manufacturing. Attendees held in-depth discussions on how to better advance intelligentization, network connectivity and digitalization in economic development.

Piero Scaruffi, founder of Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, said that AI technology is not a zero-sum game, but rather a catalyst for mutual benefits and shared success. Today’s advancements in AI have benefited greatly from international cooperation.

Tang Lixin, vice president of Northeastern University in Liaoning and an expert on industrial intelligence, told Xinhua that AI has become a strategic technology leading a new technological revolution and industrial transformation. It is a critical strategic resource driving global technology leaps, industrial optimization and upgrading, and overall productivity advancement, exerting profound impacts on economic and social development. Promoting the healthy, orderly development of AI has become particularly urgent, he noted.

“AI presents a shared opportunity for all humanity, as well as a common challenge we all face,” said Hermano Tercius, secretary of telecommunications at the Ministry of Communications of Brazil, adding that in the current complex and ever-changing international environment, strengthening international cooperation in the field of new technologies is crucial.

He said that as the world’s third-largest user of AI, Brazil still lags behind in data center construction. This necessitates collaboration with countries that have advantages in digital infrastructure to achieve complementary benefits and mutual success.

The further advancement of global AI technology hinges on the existence of an open, inclusive environment for innovative collaboration. During the conference, many participants highlighted challenges in areas such as governance frameworks and technical standards that current global AI development faces.

“AI has triggered significant transformations in the technological landscape. Without better compliance-driven rulemaking, it is difficult to predict its future trajectory. Global cooperation is essential to address these challenges,” said Alexandre V. Chidiac, managing partner of Iskandar Group, which is a company engaged in international shipping and trade.

“We advocate for inclusive policies and environments in the field of AI among all nations,” Tercius said. “Only through such efforts can we ensure that no country is left behind in this technological revolution, and build a robust bridge towards shared prosperity and an interconnected future for the world.”

Ben Sassi, general manager of the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce in Poland, stated that there is an urgent global need to strengthen dialogue, enhance mutual trust, and build widespread consensus in areas such as rule-making, technical standards and ethics to promote the healthy development of AI in a united manner.

Over the years, China has made positive explorations and contributed constructive ideas and solutions to the global governance of AI. The country launched the Global AI Governance Initiative in 2023. And last year, the 78th UN General Assembly reached a historic consensus by adopting a resolution on enhancing international cooperation for AI capacity building, which was spearheaded by China.

Participating guests also expressed their willingness to collaborate with China in the field of AI in the future. Pakistan Global Business Alliance Chairman Muhammad Asif Noor Farooqi, for example, said that he hopes China and Pakistan will enhance cooperation within the digital economy to strengthen Pakistan’s intelligent infrastructure.  ■

If AI is going to matter at all in our economy, it has to matter for small businesses first.

As a search fund entrepreneur, I’ve met and worked with more than 300 CEOs and founders in cities across the U.S. from New York to Las Vegas, Sunnyvale to Maryland. In every conversation, the same concern surfaces: the AI models in our smartphones are more advanced than the technology stacks running our businesses. While the devices in our pockets update monthly, most business systems remain unchanged for years. And nowhere is this more evident than in small businesses.

This matters because small businesses employ more than 61 million people, nearly half the private workforce. Yet just a fraction of 1% are building the kinds of technology ventures that attract institutional capital.

So this means that the overwhelming majority of small businesses are self-funded and family-run. They’re bootstrapped by owners who pour their own savings into businesses that anchor the communities they care about. These are the businesses still running payroll on technology built a decade ago.

Family Businesses Meet AI Startups

The other day, I joined a lunch meeting with 80 small business owners who lead multi-generational family firms. This gathering was a masterclass in human networks. However, not once was technology mentioned in the entire meeting.

Every three weeks, all 80 members gather at a private club on Park Avenue for a three-course meal. The purpose was to share business priorities and make referrals and introductions for each member. There were green pens and notepads on the tables embossed with the motto: “Trusted relationships build businesses.” Over lunch, if each of the 80 members received just five new customer introductions, that’s over 400 new channels opened before dessert.

Four hours later, I was downtown at the city’s newest restaurant for a startup forum. Here, every conversation was about AI and technology, from AI-powered roll-ups and cybersecurity to founders turning New York’s vacant warehouses into sushi pop-ups.

Two Worlds In One City

Across every city I’ve traveled to, these two business communities live side by side but rarely meet. One is led by families built through trusted introductions and intellectual property developed over decades. The other is driven by startups fueled by the race to deploy the newest technology at scale.

What happens when these two worlds connect? Imagine today’s most advanced technology powering small family-owned businesses.

For the past 40 years, one model of entrepreneurship has created more than $10 billion in value by doing exactly this: investing in established small businesses and building them with new technology and leadership. The Search fund model, first launched at Stanford in 1984, was designed to bring innovation into established firms. One of the earliest search funds invested in a 50-person roadside assistance company and built it into Asurion, now a global tech-care enterprise with 23,000 employees and 300 million customers. Another transformed a compliance services firm into RIA-in-a-Box, a leading SaaS platform used by over 2,600 firms nationwide.

What once took years and significant capital investment can now be done in months. Today, enterprise-grade tools once reserved for Fortune 500 corporations are within reach of nearly every business. The playbooks that small businesses have relied on for decades to build multi-generational, value-based businesses can, when paired with AI, scale impact in weeks instead of years.

Across core functions, generative AI is cutting work times by more than 60%. If you can sketch an idea on a napkin, it can be built in hours, not weeks. Supply chains, compliance, document processing and technical workflows are already showing double-digit productivity improvements. In some cases, technical tasks have been reduced by as much as 70%.

Search funds are one proven path to bringing technology into legacy businesses. Others are emerging as well, including AI consulting firms, AI studios and AI-powered roll-up strategies, each with their own strategies to rebuild established firms with the most advanced technology available today.

The tools are here, the cost has never been lower, and the door is wide open—for now.

If AI is going to matter at all, it has to matter for small businesses first. Once it’s put to work, it will power growth across Main Street and fuel an economy that directly supports half the workforce.