On a recent weekday, around 50 people gathered outside the headquarters of a Chinese mobile internet company in Beijing, waiting for help installing an artificial intelligence assistant on their laptops. The same scene played out at other events in Beijing and again in Shenzhen, where engineers assisted crowds trying to set up OpenClaw, an “agent” AI tool that can use different capabilities to complete complicated tasks.
The report places the moment in the broader context of China’s rapid shift from early experimentation to everyday use. It says that more than a year after OpenAI’s Chinese rival DeepSeek stunned the world with an advanced model, China has become a major testing ground for mass use of AI tools, even as U.S.-built models still dominate in raw computing power.
Chinese officials and analysts also point to the scale of adoption. The story cites a government-controlled report from the China Internet Network Information Center saying that, out of China’s 1.4 billion population, more than 600 million people were using generative AI as of December—an increase of 142% from a year earlier.
One sign of how quickly the technology is being absorbed is that people are adopting AI assistants for both daily life and employment tasks, the report says. It describes a Shanghai retiree, Jason Tong, using AI chatbots such as Doubao and Kimi for everyday queries. It also describes how he began paying closer attention to his health in early March after joining a blood glucose monitoring service that uses an AI model to generate tailored health advice, saying he found the responses helpful.
The report says the “agentic” turn is feeding a new round of use cases. It describes OpenClaw being integrated into broader product ecosystems and commercial workflows: Tencent integrated OpenClaw into WeChat, while Alibaba is embedding “agentic” AI into its workflows. The article also quotes Lizzi Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis focused on economics and technology, who said the competition is shifting “from models to ecosystems” and that Chinese users are “basically acting as real-time testers at scale.”
It also shows how OpenClaw’s design is contributing to adoption. The software was created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger last year, and the report says it won quick and enthusiastic use because it can use various tools to complete tasks. Zhao Yikang, a college student in Macao, described using OpenClaw in studies and daily life, including generating promotional videos and managing social media accounts during an internship in Zhuhai, and he said users need to “act as a commander and tell it what to do.” The report also says Zhao asked AI to build a company website and that it produced a fully functional site within 10 minutes for less than 5 yuan.
Alongside the momentum, the report says Chinese authorities issued warnings about potential security risks over OpenClaw “agents,” including concerns about data leaks as installations surged, but that interest had not faded. It adds that Chinese companies are increasingly setting internal targets for boosting AI use to improve efficiency, and it quotes Janet Tang of consulting firm AlixPartners saying there are “a lot of application scenarios.” It also includes quotes from SenseTime co-founder and ACE Robotics chairman Wang Xiaogang, who said the industry is developing very fast and that people are eager to try the AI across scenarios.
The report treats the U.S.-China technology relationship as both an obstacle and a driver of change. It says China has invested heavily in nurturing talent and ensuring access to abundant, affordable electricity for AI development and that Chinese leaders pledged an annual average growth of at least 7% in nationwide research and development spending in the country’s five-year plan through 2030. The story also notes an “AI plus” national blueprint aimed at integrating AI into areas such as healthcare and education, and it mentions that Shenzhen courts processed 50% more cases last year, partly with help from an AI tool assisting judicial processes.
At the same time, the report says limits on access to some of the world’s most advanced computer chips due to U.S. restrictions remain a bottleneck. Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at New America focused on Chinese technology policies, is quoted saying export controls on tools have slowed China’s chipmaking capabilities and are “the Achilles’ heel of many AI labs that need advanced AI chips.” The report also says the controls have pushed improved coordination across China’s tech supply chain, quoting Sacks again: “Over time this dynamic could fuel, not foil, China’s ambitions.”
On whether China can narrow the gap with U.S. providers, the story points to a shift in model and chip dependencies. It says that when DeepSeek released a V4 AI model preview last month, one change was that it was supported in part by chips made by Huawei, which it says reduces dependence on top U.S. chipmakers such as Nvidia. The report also cites a recent report by Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI saying the U.S.-China gap in top AI models’ performance has “effectively closed.” It adds that U.S. policymakers and major U.S. AI companies have accused Chinese startups of stealing technology, while China says those allegations are groundless.
Analysts quoted in the report say remaining hurdles may affect adoption in limited ways, particularly given China’s controlled internet environment. Lian Jye Su, a chief analyst at Omdia, is quoted saying the gap will continue to narrow despite U.S. export controls and China’s Great Firewall, and he said: “It won’t be long before China moves from fast follower to parallel innovator.” The report concludes that with AI already being tested, integrated and scaled up inside China’s environment, adoption there is becoming a shaping force for how AI is rolled out beyond its borders.