More than 100 million people have begun using generative AI in China since the end of last year, as office assistants, productivity tools and connected devices drive adoption.
China’s use of generative artificial intelligence has passed 700 million users, according to a report from the China Internet Network Information Centre, marking an increase of more than 100 million since the end of last year. The findings, released on 29 September at the seventh China Internet Infrastructure Resources Conference, suggest that AI tools are moving rapidly from novelty to routine use across the country.
The report says about 76 per cent of Chinese internet users who engage with generative AI do so mainly for question-and-answer tasks. Other common uses include producing or editing images, videos and text, as well as drafting meeting summaries. It also found that office-oriented applications such as AI assistants and productivity tools more than doubled year on year.
The growth comes alongside wider adoption of connected devices. The report says 38.7 per cent of internet users in China bought smart hardware online in the past six months, a sign that AI is increasingly linked to consumer electronics as well as software services.
China’s AI sector has expanded quickly in industrial scope too. By June 2026, the country had 10,740 companies active in large models, AI agents, robotics and related fields, with clusters in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The report said policy support has increasingly shifted from a narrow focus on technical breakthroughs towards application-specific use cases and tighter regulatory oversight, reflecting Beijing’s effort to promote growth while keeping the industry under closer control.
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