If last year’s Huawei Industrial Digital and Intelligent Transformation Summit was about exploring the opportunities and challenges of industrial intelligent transformation, the 2025 edition was about how rapid AI development has changed the landscape.
Expectations for AI continue to rise as we move the spotlight from AI application at scale to accelerating towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). In 2025, this will manifest in the form of agentic AI, with hopes that it will take GenAI from answers to action.
The threshold for AI application is also gradually decreasing. AI’s groundbreaking progress has reshaped the AI landscape in three ways. First, it has shifted industry focus, from merely increasing computing power to optimizing its use. It also underscores how the scale of AI models is no longer the sole factor determining intelligence. Lastly, open-source AI models are simply becoming more competitive. The true measure of AI’s value lies in its ability to enhance productivity across industries, and drive a new wave of social and economic development.
Key challenges in digital and intelligent transformation
To further drive industrial intelligent transformation, we must answer several key questions.
How can we fully integrate advanced intelligent technologies into industry-specific scenarios? For example, data silos are a key challenge we need to address. A Gartner survey suggests that 83% of data-focused projects stumble due to challenges like this.
Next, can the ICT infrastructure for intelligent transformation across industries handle the future exponential growth of AI workloads? Currently, 52% of existing enterprise systems cannot directly connect to intelligent platforms; this means ICT infrastructure needs to be upgraded.
Can we translate the concept of ‘inclusive AI adoption across all industries’ into a reality? Gartner predicts at least 30% of GenAI projects will be abandoned after proof of concept (PoC) by the end of 2025, with high costs being a key cause.
Last but not least, do industries have sufficient ICT talent to drive continuous breakthroughs in intelligent transformation?
Vision to action: Accelerating industrial intelligence
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Leo Chen, Corporate Senior Vice President, President of Enterprise Sales, Huawei, delivering his speech
Huawei
Through the 38 years in ICT, Huawei has always drawn upon its expertise to turn concepts into reality. Leo Chen, Corporate Senior Vice President, President of Enterprise Sales, Huawei, pointed out that in his keynote speech: Huawei believes in four areas essential to accelerating intelligent transformation across industries:
- Integrate technologies into industry scenarios – it must build a target ICT architecture for industrial intelligent transformation based on industry requirements, pain points, and development stages
- Build advanced and AI-oriented ICT infrastructure
- Develop high-performance AI products that seamlessly integrate with open-source models, enhance AI development toolchains, and collaborate with industry partners – this will drive accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and widespread adoption, making AI as universal as water and electricity for all industries
- Train ICT talent in a more targeted manner
The importance of partnership and collaboration
None of the above can be achieved without the valuable support of partners. The “Huawei + Partners” collaboration system is essential to their mission of effectively serving customers in various industries worldwide.
A highlight of our partnerships is the many joint innovations they’ve created together globally. Huawei unveiled new solutions for ten industries that we have developed alongside our partners. These include Digital Village Solution, Public Services Digitalization Solution, Digital Training Solution, Financial Data Center Resilience Solution, Intelligent Distribution Solution 2.0, Smart Railway Yard & Station Solution, Intelligent Multi-level Port Operation Management Solution, Intelligent Central Processing Facilities Solution, Intelligent Chemical Solution, and Smart Retail Solution 2.0.
Additionally, they launched 83 industrial digital transformation showcases for 71 scenarios worldwide. These showcases serve as “lighthouses”, offering best-practice references for its customers.
AI and digital & intelligent transformation for the greater good
Huawei is excited to be part of the industrial intelligent transformation. This transformation will not only enhance the productivity of every industry, but also contribute to the greater good of humanity.
With industrial intelligent transformation, technological benefits will not be limited to the IT elite, but will be enjoyed by a broader range of people, reaching all industries. The broader application of AI will also unlock greater vitality and creativity within society, and empower humanity to realize its full value. This is because AI can now be directed to do what we no longer have to do, so that we can do the things we want to do. Finally, industrial intelligent transformation will enhance interactions between AI and the physical world, catalyzing the evolution of artificial intelligence to new heights.
As we move to realize these missions, Huawei is committed to working alongside all partners to accelerate the intelligent transformation journey for a brighter future.