Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Monday urged deeper integration between AI companies and advanced manufacturing, as China steps up efforts to develop new growth drivers amid slowing domestic demand and mounting external pressures.

During a tour of both Xiaomi’s electric vehicle factory and the Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, home to more than a dozen embodied AI start-ups, industry partners and research institutions in Beijing yesterday, Li said faster development and wider application of intelligent robots and AI-powered manufacturing technologies was needed for the national economy.

He described them as key to fostering “new growth momentum and competitive advantages”, according to a Xinhua readout released late on Monday.

Li said China should accelerate the use of AI across manufacturing processes, including research and development, production, quality inspection and after-sales services, while supporting the development of industry-specific large language models and AI agents.

“Artificial intelligence is rapidly integrating with advanced manufacturing and is profoundly changing production models and industrial forms,” Li said, according to Xinhua.

Li also urged government departments and state-owned enterprises to increase the number of real-world scenarios for testing and deploying the new technologies, as Beijing seeks to accelerate widespread commercial adoption of AI-powered robotics. He also called for greater use of policy support measures, including equipment-upgrade programmes and incentives for first-of-their-kind technologies.