Shanghai firms use AI to seek new growth engine and improve business results
Shanghai-based companies, covering health care, finance and entertainment services, are expanding investments on artificial intelligence and benefiting from AI financially, Shanghai Daily learned on Wednesday.
HK-listed Ping An Healthcare and Technology is upgrading and deepening application of artificial intelligence technology in the medical and health-care field, covering about 36,000 diseases and 420,000 medical terms. It improves efficiency and accuracy rate of online diagnosis, a core business of the company, within 30 seconds for initial step in most situations.
Thanks to AI and various digital technologies, the company have reduced sales and administrative costs with narrowing loss and hope for an annual profitability in future. In 2023, it posted a net loss of 330 million yuan (US$45.8 million), narrowing by 47.6 percent from a year ago, the company said in its Shanghai headquarters on Wednesday.
China's medical and health-care market will hit 15 trillion yuan in 2030, with a quarter part coming from online service, which relies on AI technologies, the company added.
New York-listed FinVolution, an online finance platform, uses AI to expand global market and avoid risks.
In 2023, FinVolution's revenue reached US$1.77 billion, a growth of 12.7 percent, with a net profit of US$335.7 million, up 4.5 percent from a year ago. Its international transaction volume soared to US$1.1 billion, up 84.7 percent, thanks to increased new borrowers from overseas markets like Indonesia and Philippines.
Its AI breakthroughs cover AI microfinance service platform construction, visual anti-fraud technology and multi-language chatbot, which help it boost overseas business, the Shanghai-based firm said.
For HK-listed China Literature, AI seems essential for its new growth engine such as micro drama, which turns vocal in social media both domestically and internationally, said the China's biggest online literature platform.
With each episode running for less than five or even three minutes, the dramas portray exciting and attractive stories. The popular titles include an ordinary and timid son-in-law who transforms into the influential alpha male of the family; a once-abandoned husband who completes a magnificent transformation and takes revenge, and how an average Joe becomes a business genius and wins his business battle.
Usually, the first batch of episodes are free but viewers have to pay, watch accompanying ads, or subscribe monthly or annually to unlock further episodes.
China Literature had seen "great potential for generative AI applications such as ChatGPT and Sora" to speed up creation process from IP licenses to micro-dramas works, said Hou Xiaonan, China Literature's chief executive and president.