On one side, the development of "new quality productivity" has become a widespread consensus; on the other side, the promotion of industrial transformation and upgrading with "AI+" is being carried out vigorously. Undoubtedly, the development of AI is converging with new quality productivity—AI has become the core element in the development of new quality productivity, and at the same time, China's intelligent transformation has also become a key value presentation of new quality productivity.

The question lies in how, when faced with the new subject of new quality productivity, the intelligent transformation that has been ongoing for many years and continuously deepening, should be upgraded in terms of approach and value to achieve matching, thereby better promoting economic and social development and serving various government and enterprise organization customers?

Recently, the Lenovo Innovation Technology Conference was held, where Lenovo systematically elaborated on its "full-stack AI" strategic layout to the industry, including one body and multiple ends—"AI-embedded intelligent terminals," one horizontal and five verticals—"AI-oriented infrastructure," and one engine and three arrows—"AI-native solution services."

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Liu Jun, Executive Vice President of Lenovo Group and President of the China Region, said in his keynote speech, "Lenovo is fully prepared to start a new decade facing AI and will continue to deepen the transformation of business models, leading the new era with 'full-stack AI.'"

From the perspective of industry and sector, full-stack AI is not only Lenovo's preparation for a new decade but also a complete fit for the intrinsic requirements of new quality productivity.

01

New quality productivity comes with the requirements of promoting new industries, new models, and new dynamics.New quality productivity does not arise out of thin air.

Undoubtedly, the rapid economic development of China in the past has propelled the growth of numerous enterprises. Judging from the Fortune Global 500 list, from 1995 to 2022, the number of Chinese companies has soared from 3 to 145, leading the world for four consecutive years, a performance that cannot be considered insignificant.

However, when it comes to the quality of development, there are still considerable challenges.

The average sales profit margin of the listed companies in Mainland China is only 5.1%, the return on total assets is 1.15%, and the return on equity is 9.5%. These indicators are significantly below the average level of the Global 500. In addition, the profits and growth rates of the listed companies are also far below the average levels of the United States and the world.

Large enterprises serve as a mirror, reflecting the widespread phenomenon of "low development quality" among Chinese companies.

Specifically, this is manifested at three levels.

Firstly, it is the long-term position in the low-end industries, where only low-end added value can be obtained, and it is difficult to move upwards.

There are too many such cases, almost a cliché. For example, in the manufacturing industry, the proportion of traditional resource processing and high-energy-consuming manufacturing is relatively high, while the proportion of mid-to-high-end manufacturing is relatively low. In addition, there is the low rate of ownership of digital infrastructure and digital foundational technologies.

The key is how to solve this?

To put it bluntly, under the "low-end lock-in," the best solution is nothing more than to "take a detour" or "overtake on the curve," actively cultivating emerging and future industries, and bringing new incremental value space through technological innovation and breakthroughs, rather than fighting in the existing pool of positions that have been predetermined.That is to say, the first task of the new quality productivity is to construct a "new industry" that can bring industrial value advantages and increments. In fact, we have already tasted the sweetness of the "new industry." In addition to key areas such as new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products, the digital economy has also formed a leading advantage globally. In 2022, the added value of China's strategic emerging industries accounted for more than 13% of the gross domestic product.

Next, there is a lack of interaction between industrial factors, and the ability to integrate industries is weak. This is particularly evident in the service trade structure ratio, which is far below the world level. According to United Nations data, by 2019, global service trade accounted for about 30% of the total global trade, and it was not until 2023 that China's service trade accounted for 12% of the total national trade, with many still being in the life service industry, and the service value in high-end manufacturing and other fields is even lower.

Translating these data means that in the development of enterprises, including the process of intelligent transformation, the mode of mutual collaboration of industrial chain resources, joint efforts, comprehensive linkage, and resource integration "service" industry and enterprise has not appeared on a large scale, and the value of existing industrial factor resources (such as computing infrastructure) has not been well utilized.

Therefore, another task of the new quality productivity is to construct a "new model" that integrates various industrial chain resources, bringing about changes in product architecture, business models, or application scenarios, stimulating new possibilities, and exploring more value space.

Finally, the "total factor productivity" is getting lower and lower. This concept is a bit complex to understand, but simply put, its decline indicates that the same resources (mainly capital) invested can produce less and less value increment.

From 1978 to 1994, China was in a stage of rapid economic development, where a small investment could bring a large return, and the total factor productivity contributed about 50% to the improvement of production efficiency. Subsequently, as the economic development speed shifted from high-speed to rapid and then entered a stable cycle, this figure gradually shrank, from 40% in the 11th Five-Year Plan to less than one-third in the 12th Five-Year Plan. There is an objective gap with developed countries in Europe and America, which is ultimately reflected in the various indicators of the Fortune 500—enterprise production efficiency and development vitality are not very sufficient, and the benefits created by capital investment are not significant. If we compare an enterprise to a motor, the same amount of electrical input begins to slow down the rotation speed.

Under the new quality productivity, it is necessary to give the motor a greater "new kinetic energy," to carry out in-depth transformation and upgrading of the industry, so that with the same resource input, there will be better output and greater effects.New industries, new models, and new drivers of growth are the core demands of new quality productivity, and technological innovations represented by AI are precisely the most powerful weapons to give birth to these three elements. This is the underlying logic that allows AI to become the core element in the development of new quality productivity.

02

Full-stack AI, driving intelligent transformation to meet the core demands of new quality productivity

Looking back, at this Lenovo Innovation Technology Conference, Lenovo's systematic exposition of the full-stack AI strategic layout is actually a complete embodiment of the new quality productivity's requirements for new industries, new models, and new drivers of growth in the context of intelligent transformation.

1. New Industry: Defining and driving the development of new industries through innovation

At this conference, Lenovo introduced to the industry a new AI personalized computer product.

In the past, whether it was the generational changes in home PCs or internet PCs led by Lenovo, they were not simple "product upgrades"; essentially, they were thorough "industry remaking"—behind the products was an entirely new industry. According to Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, the significant value of the AI "Personalized" Computer is to bring artificial intelligence down from the cloud and into thousands of households and industries.

The subtext is that this new generation of products has given rise to a new industry where artificial intelligence enters work and life—what is being sold is no longer just computer products, but a series of personalized, in-depth artificial intelligence services that help improve the quality of life for individuals and promote higher work efficiency and quality.

This approach of "AI-embedded intelligent terminals" marks the beginning of a new "AI assistant" industry.

Moreover, not only that, but the "new industry" is also flourishing in the area of "AI-oriented infrastructure."The development of the digital economy has set increasingly higher demands for computing power. Lenovo, already a top-three global AI infrastructure provider and the world's leading supplier of scientific computing, has leveraged its past server capabilities to build a comprehensive "one horizontal and five vertical" AI-oriented infrastructure framework. With the Lenovo Wanquan heterogeneous computing platform, it connects the five major infrastructure elements: servers, storage, data networks, software, and hyper-converged and edge computing.

It can be seen that these elements cover all the core components of the AI infrastructure industry. Once fully connected, the computing power infrastructure, or the "AI smart computing" as a "new industry," can be said to have truly taken shape.

2. New Model: Promoting full integration of industrial elements and creating a new value space

Above Lenovo's AI PC is Lenovo's AI embedded intelligent terminal that breaks through the "integrated multi-terminal" approach. That is, with the Tianxi AS personal intelligent system at the core, it extends applications and experiences to AI smartphones, AI tablets, and various intelligent IoT devices. Through cross-device interconnection, it provides users with a scenario-based integrated experience.

In fact, looking back at the long-term development process of intelligent terminals, device interconnection has always been a dream for many manufacturers. Its fundamental significance lies in creating a new value service model on top of the product through the value linkage of different devices, thereby bringing new value space. This has given rise to many concepts and strategies such as "whole-house intelligence."

Under the integrated multi-terminal approach, Lenovo is actually using AI as a link to bring this industry-anticipated terminal "new model" into users' work and life, endowing AI-era intelligent terminals with new value possibilities.

Moreover, in terms of industrial chain resource collaboration, the "AI-oriented infrastructure" of "one horizontal and five vertical" not only fully promotes the growth of the "new industry" but also, due to the particularity of the industry, is also driving the "new model" of computing power.

Typical examples include the fact that there are already more than five mainstream algorithm frameworks and more than ten operator libraries on the market to support different application scenarios. How can so many resources be combined into the joint force of the industrial chain?

Lenovo has innovated to solve the problem of integrating and utilizing different computing power resources. For example, the computing power matching magic cube has built a computing power magic cube knowledge base that matches the relationship between AI scenarios, algorithms, and cluster hardware. It leaves the complex collaborative work of resource elements to itself and simplicity to customers—as long as the scenario and data are input, the optimal algorithm and the best cluster configuration can be automatically loaded.

In fact, at this conference, Lenovo released three major capabilities and five major technological innovations in the "AI-oriented infrastructure" dimension, as well as the "one horizontal" in the "one horizontal and five vertical" of the "AI-oriented infrastructure"—Lenovo Wanquan heterogeneous smart computing platform. As the core of Lenovo China's infrastructure strategy framework, the construction of this element-bearing platform is precisely the "new model" of element integration most needed in the digital economy era.3. New Momentum: Empowering Industrial Transformation and Upgrading with Stronger Energy

The issue of momentum is essentially about achieving higher output with the same input—making development "more powerful," where a little effort can lead to rapid progress and abundant results, rather than the past scenario where progress was "difficult to push."

Lenovo's full-stack AI "AI-native solution services" have been upgraded to "One Engine, Three Arrows"—where the Tianqi has been upgraded to "Tianqi 3.0," driven by enterprise large models and centered around intelligent agents. Relying on this engine, it also drives three rockets of solutions and services aimed at government and enterprise, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and consumer groups.

"One Engine, Three Arrows" follows Lenovo's consistent business model transformation and cost-effectiveness value heritage (internally generated by Lenovo, first improving itself, and then summarizing core capabilities and serving customers), but with new breakthroughs.

Among them, Tianqi 3.0 has evolved into an intelligent agent for research, production, supply, and service, paired with tools such as enterprise knowledge bases, enterprise hybrid large models, and AI development platforms, becoming an important handle for Lenovo's solution services to implement AI applications for customers. In addition, the three arrows correspond to large government and enterprise customers (customization), SMEs (Baiying intelligent agents), and consumer customers (Xiao Tian personal intelligent agents).

The value of "One Engine, Three Arrows" can be seen from the name given by Lenovo—it provides an "engine" for various types of entities to equip them with development "rockets," which is to say, it brings them direct "new momentum" through intelligence.

Large government and enterprise customers can obtain support services for intelligent products, digital workplaces, sustainable development, and intelligent hybrid cloud solutions, promoting business optimization and renewal.

SME users, with the help of Baiying intelligent agents, can obtain more convenient IT services, accelerating corporate transformation.

A broader range of consumer customers, as the cells of economic life, with the help of Lenovo's Xiao Tian personal intelligent agents, combined with AI PCs, will achieve better work efficiency and quality, and economic development has gained stronger energy in the details.

It is also not difficult to find that the source of "new momentum" is not only "AI-native solution services." "AI-embedded intelligent terminals" bringing new assistant value is also "new momentum." Furthermore, Lenovo stated at the conference that "AI-oriented infrastructure" will innovate in three major areas: super computing power, core algorithms, and liquid cooling innovation, which is also directly releasing "new momentum" from AI infrastructure.Conversely, "AI-native solution services" are also bringing "new models" and "new industries." For example, promoting the application of large models in the plan is promoting the evolution of the "new industry" of large models and intelligent agents, and the "industry co-creation and sharing" approach in the Baiying intelligent agent is a typical representative of the "new model."

As Liu Jun emphasized at the conference, "Lenovo's 'full-stack AI' is highly aligned with the national strategy." In the matter of China's intelligent transformation, full-stack AI and new quality productivity have met the requirements of new industries, new models, and new dynamics everywhere.

03

Full-stack AI is deployed, and new quality productivity is implemented

With strategic layout, corresponding practical implementation is also needed.

Lenovo's strategic layout of full-stack AI and its practical implementation are almost launched at the same time.

At this conference, Lenovo introduced the process of serving a leading new energy company.

As an "old customer," the company's needs throughout the IT lifecycle, from hardware such as PCs and servers to equipment maintenance, DaaS, Lenovo Zhensuan services, and intelligent transformation services, are all met by Lenovo.

Full-stack AI has brought new momentum from an intelligent perspective to the company - it used to face the pressure of a huge IT expansion, especially the data protection disaster recovery system. Lenovo's intelligent hybrid cloud xCloud not only met its needs for IT expansion and data security but also saved 40% of human resource input.

This is a direct manifestation of the "new momentum" of new quality productivity.Similarly, there is the collaboration with Lotus, the high-end sports car brand under Lenovo and Geely, providing intelligent solutions such as AI vision-based quality inspection, supply chain management, and precise quality control. For instance, these solutions can enhance the efficiency and quality control of the whole vehicle's silent room inspection, as well as support customers in customizing the appearance of electric supercars. These are the new developmental energies brought to new energy vehicle companies by intelligent transformation.

Sinopec, State Grid, COFCO Group, Sany Heavy Industry, and more... Under the full-stack AI and full-cycle service, the intelligent transformation of thousands of Chinese enterprises is accelerating, and "new quality productivity" is indeed being continuously generated.

Of course, the implementation of Lenovo's full-stack AI does not rely on going it alone. Industrial collaboration and ecological co-development are key, especially the important prerequisite for building the "new model."

For example, the Lenovo TianXing 3.0 upgrade has built the TianXing Intelligent Engine, supporting the operation of multiple intelligent agents. After the entire system completes the AI-empowered GPaaS platform and general intelligent agents, industry ISVs, industry large model manufacturers, or developers can join to create different intelligent agent solutions. A kind of "shared economy" of intelligent transformation—sharing general capabilities—this "new model" is thus constructed in practice.

Liu Jun stated at the conference that Lenovo will continue to invest and accelerate the development of the TianXi ecosystem (for AI terminal industry), WanQuan ecosystem (for intelligent computing industry), and TianXing ecosystem (for large models and intelligent agent industry). By joining forces with leading industry ecological partners, they aim to create ultimate AI experiences, inclusive AI terminal ecological products, computing power systems, and enterprise and industry intelligent agent solutions, empowering customers' intelligent transformation.

In summary, the new industries, new models, and new dynamics brought by "full-stack AI" are deeply advancing China's intelligent transformation in their own ways. Lenovo's extensive case practices and partner foundation allow this value to be seamlessly implemented and demonstrated in scenarios, making the high-quality development of the economy under new quality productivity tangible and visible.

Looking back, Liu Jun made a judgment in his conference speech that "full-stack AI is the core element of new quality productivity." Behind this statement, if the industry previously widely believed that "AI" is the core element of new quality productivity, now this "AI" can be more concrete—only full-stack AI is the "AI" that meets the intrinsic requirements of new quality productivity.