National People's Congress deputy Zhang Shihui, an employee of China Unicom, has dedicated two decades to the grassroots level of the information and communications industry. Progressing from a regular marketing manager at Suihua Unicom to deputy manager of the industry client operations center within the enterprise customer business group, she has consistently adhered to her original aspiration of "voicing the concerns of the people." The year 2026 marks her fourth year as an NPC deputy. Through changes in her position and shifts in perspective, she leverages her professional expertise in communications and her sense of responsibility as a deputy to propose suggestions for the intelligent upgrade of public services and the cultivation of new quality productive forces in the industry.
"While my role has changed, my core focus remains, and my commitment to serving the people must not waver," Zhang stated. Last year, she transitioned from a grassroots grid manager to deputy manager of the industry client operations center, shifting from direct, point-to-point public service to coordinating industry resources and promoting the implementation of technology for broader, surface-to-surface empowerment. Her investigative efforts have continued unabated. Building on community visits and field exchanges, she has expanded her work to include in-depth collaboration with departments such as civil affairs and medical insurance, and joint technical seminars with universities and research institutions, systematically considering how the communications industry can enhance public services.
Zhang Shihui noted that grassroots challenges are the starting point for her duties, and the industry's strengths provide the foundation for solving problems. As an NPC deputy, she bears the mission of transforming corporate technological advantages into effective public services and aligning industry development with national strategies. Zhang has focused her research on the field of smart elderly care. Visiting communities and rural areas in Suihua, she listened to the elderly: elderly care apps are often complex to operate, and age-friendly adaptations are insufficient; while community elderly services are numerous, an "information barrier" persists between government resource provision and family service needs; traditional care models are inefficient, costly, and struggle to achieve early risk warnings, with frontline care workers urgently needing technological tools to reduce burdens and enhance capabilities.
Through deepening investigation, she keenly felt the growing urgency for refined and intelligent elderly care services as the population ages, while the limitations of traditional models become increasingly apparent. Zhang repeatedly studied the State Council's "Opinions on Deepening the 'Artificial Intelligence Plus' Initiative." Combining this with her professional knowledge in communications, she insightfully identified smart agents as key to overcoming elderly care bottlenecks. Compared to traditional smart devices, smart agents' capabilities in voice interaction, algorithmic warnings, and data interoperability better suit the habits of the elderly, potentially breaking down information barriers between government, community, family, and medical institutions to enable precise and efficient service delivery.
She believes that empowering elderly care with smart agents is not merely about adding technology, but requires deep integration of core communications technologies like computing-network synergy and intelligent algorithms with the full-scenario demands of elderly care,打通ing the entire chain from R&D to practical application. To make her proposals more targeted and actionable, Zhang formed a research team. After months of specialized study, they deeply analyzed the application challenges, technical bottlenecks, and implementation pathways for smart agents in elderly care scenarios. Integrating practical insights from grassroots research and the industrial characteristics of the communications sector, she incorporated the industry's hands-on experience in smart agent development, network construction, and scenario implementation into her proposals brought to the NPC session.
This deputy, who rose from the grassroots, is now applying a fresh perspective to her duties, continuing to craft a record of "technology with warmth and policies that touch hearts," aiming to let the light of technological innovation brighten the lives of more citizens.