This year marks the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The government work report proposes cultivating new formats and models driven by intelligent primitives and creating new forms of a smart economy. Currently, artificial intelligence is breaking traditional models and becoming the foundational support for both industry and daily life.
In Beijing, new, "small yet sophisticated" agricultural machinery, deeply integrated with AI, is achieving a leap from "unmanned operation to swarm intelligence." In Shangzhuang Town, Haidian District, Beijing, ornamental flowers for the May Day holiday are being sown in a flower field. An seemingly ordinary tractor is equipped with a high-precision operating system capable of centimeter-level accuracy. The seeder decides when to sow and at what depth autonomously. Its owner, Master Wei, who has driven tractors for over 30 years, now simply watches from the field's edge, his hands freed this year.
According to Liu Jikai, head of the Hilly Area Agricultural Machinery Department at Beijing Zhongke Yuandongli Technology Co., Ltd., it is a farmland operation robot in the form of a tractor. It acquires environmental information through sensors like radar and cameras and uses its "processor brain" for trajectory planning and operational decisions. Most crucially, it possesses swarm intelligence and collaborative functions, allowing it to work seamlessly with a following material transport robot. When seeds are running low, the transport robot immediately approaches to replenish them with zero-delay coordination.
The product is currently in high demand, and the company urgently needs talent proficient in both artificial intelligence and agriculture. Located in Haidian District, home to top universities like Tsinghua and Peking University, the company received dozens of resumes on the day a local sub-district held an AI exchange conference last week. Zhang Dongchuan, Party Working Committee Secretary of Shangdi Sub-district in Haidian District, stated that new graduates hired by AI companies receive a monthly rent subsidy of 1,000 yuan for two consecutive years. The sub-district is connected to no fewer than 500 AI-related enterprises and aims to build an innovation ecosystem, forming a demonstration zone for AI application.
Simultaneously, "One-Person Companies" are becoming a notable new model. This refers to a novel entrepreneurial mode where a single individual, using AI as a tool, independently completes the entire business chain. How exactly is AI currently helping ordinary people start businesses, and how are these "super individuals" emerging?
In Hangzhou, young entrepreneur Chen Yunfei starts his workday with just a laptop and a cup of coffee. A photo-editing mobile application he previously developed, which enhances colors and lighting in selfies, topped the paid app charts. Surprisingly, Chen has no programming background; the software was entirely generated using AI. To support more young entrepreneurs like Chen, who can "arrive with an idea and leave with a product," Hangzhou's Shangcheng District allocates 100 million yuan annually to create a "One-Person Company Startup City." In Yuhang District, the Liangzhu Digital Bay has connected 700 such super-individuals and gathered over 80 projects, 90% of which operate as one-person companies.
In Chengdu, the government provides hands-on assistance to match enterprises with resources. A one-person company community established in February within the Tianfu Software Park is conducting its first project review session, evaluating team capability, idea feasibility, and industry alignment to provide targeted services. Shi Bingcheng, founder of Linggui Studio, mentioned the benefits of relatively centralized resources for connections, publishing, investment, and peer exchange.
As a national next-generation AI innovation development pilot zone, Chengdu's AI industry scale has exceeded 140 billion yuan, laying a foundation for one-person company growth. Suzhou has launched full-cycle entrepreneurial support services, aiming to cultivate over a thousand one-person companies by 2028. Shenzhen leverages the technological strengths of Huaqiangbei to focus on nurturing technology-driven one-person companies. Qingdao in Shandong Province has introduced policies like "computing power vouchers," "model vouchers," and entrepreneurial guaranteed loans to build a "Northern OPC Pioneer Demonstration City." Currently, more than ten cities are leveraging their unique AI development characteristics to locally adapt and establish one-person company communities.
Beyond shaping new economic forms, AI is also generating new types of jobs, positions, and professions in the digital content creation field. Zhang Yuxuan, a "post-00s" AI Card Drawer, selects logically sound and demand-fitting content from AI-generated images and videos for further optimization. Her strong aesthetic sense and proficiency with AI tools made her highly sought-after immediately upon entering the field.
Besides AI Card Drawers, AI Animator is another popular new occupation. As specialized AI roles continue to emerge, demand for talent is rising steadily. At the Moganshan AI Film and Television City talent training base in Deqing County, Zhejiang, courses on applying generative AI systems, AI training, and AI animation production are consistently full. Trainees in one classroom are learning to use prompts precisely to "command" AI to generate content. During reporting, companies were already present attempting to recruit graduates. Zhao Xiaodong, General Manager of Xinghe Fantasy Technology Co., Ltd., cited a massive surge in orders and a significant personnel shortage, expressing interest in hiring the entire class upon completion.
Zhang Weibin, Teaching and Research Head at Perfect World Education, noted that after roughly a month of training, trainees are recruited by animation, gaming, and film companies nationwide. Roles like AI Digital Human Developer/Operator and AI Content Compliance Officer are particularly in high demand. To date, Deqing County has trained over 7,000 individuals in AI-related technologies and cultural creativity. Leveraging the training base, Moganshan AI Film and Television City has attracted 43 AI-related film and cultural enterprises, contributing to a doubling of the "AI + Film and Culture" industry's output value for three consecutive years.