China's AI Startups Gain Business Traction Beyond Labs

By: Asia Business Outlook Team | Wednesday, 30 July 2025

Chinese AI companies—from startups to giants like Tencent—are rapidly gaining real-world business traction, contrasting with global trends of high burn rates.

At the World AI Conference in Shanghai, Tencent’s VP Wu Yongjian shared that their AI now resolves over 80 percent of online customer queries at Toyota’s joint venture with FAW, doubling in effectiveness within six months. Implementation time has also dropped from three months to just two weeks. Tencent recently upgraded its Hunyuan AI model, and demand is growing for tools offering applied AI solutions.

Key Highlights

Tencent’s AI now resolves over 80 percent of customer service queries
Chinese startups like Z.ai and DeepExi are scaling with open-source and industry-specific AI
Data labeling firm Haitian Ruisheng saw over 61 percent revenue growth in H1 2025

Zhou Yuxiang, CEO of Black Lake Technologies, noted a shift in hiring: “Before it was hard to get AI engineers, as they now pivot from model development to industry-specific AI applications.” Black Lake supports small factories with production-enhancing AI tools amid a wave of FOMO among business owners.

Meanwhile, open-source AI is gaining momentum. Z.ai undercut competitors like Moonshot’s Kimi K2 and DeepSeek with a cost-efficient open-source model. Data has emerged as a critical foundation. DeepExi, which claims to produce “zero hallucination outputs,” saw 88.3 percent revenue growth and is preparing for a Hong Kong IPO.

Haitian Ruisheng, a major data labeling firm, works with ByteDance, Tencent, Amazon, and others, and reported over 61 percent H1 2025 revenue growth, with profits doubling. Their focus lies in education, healthcare, tourism, and robotics (embodied intelligence), with global expansion plans underway.

Also Read: Tencent Cloud Showcases AI Innovation to Boost Korean Digital Transformation

Premier Li Qiang emphasized global AI cooperation, and Tencent is already offering virtual human avatars and AI developer platforms in Japan and Southeast Asia.