"2017 China IT Market Conference" was held in Beijing on Thursday.

According to what has been discussed at the conference, China's artificial intelligence (AI) market grew rapidly in 2016, exceeding 23 billion yuan (3.34 billion U.S. dollars). It is estimated that the AI market size in 2018 will reach 38.1 billion yuan (5.53 billion U.S. dollars) with a compound annual growth rate of 26.3%.

In the meantime, with the mix and integration of storage, computing, virtual reality, big data, AI and other technologies, a new industrial ecology in digital economy will take shape in a decade to come.

It is predicted that AI is to embrace new opportunities in the next three years. Judging from related industrial policies of local governments, Beijing, Shenyang and Shanghai are likely to lead in the AI sector. 

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn