As Kenya and other Global South countries work to adapt to artificial intelligence, China is already moving into the next phase: what it calls _“AI Plus”_ or digital intelligent development.
This new approach goes beyond basic automation. It envisions digital systems capable of generation, reasoning, decision-making, execution, collaboration, computing power, and advanced algorithms. In practice, it means China is shifting from standalone apps to an ecosystem of AI agents, industry-specific large models, trusted data spaces, intelligent manufacturing, and intelligent digital marketing.
According to Professor Li Sanxi of Renmin University of China, China’s digitalization did not just happen. It took strategic planning, learning from global peers, and the realization that data is a factor of production, which differs from other traditional factors like labor and capital.
“Data has new characteristics like reusability, Combinability and replicability, what we need to address is definition of ownership,privacy,regulation and security.” Says Prof. Sanxi.
Another key step China is moving from app innovation to technology innovation even after homegrown giants like Alibaba, WeChat, and TikTok continue to dominate the platform economy. To drive this growth, the Chinese government initiated a three-phase strategy to learn from other global models, adapt and localize and set standard before exporting the technology.
Chinese innovators skillfully carry out ‘localization adaptations and business model innovations’ to ensure they offer solutions to local consumer behavior and infrastructure realities.
China’s Global Development Promotion Center (GDPC) urges the Global South to adopt a development -first, Prudential supervision approach, balancing digital dividends and localized risk prevention to ‘build a distinctive Southern governance paradigm instead of copying strict Western regulatory models.
By 2024 the number of invention patents granted in China’s core digital economy industries grew 23% to 500,000.
Another factor that has contributed significantly is that Chinese firms also continuously evolve platforms. WeChat, for example, grew from a messaging app into a super-app for payments, government services, e-commerce, and more.
With internet penetration among adults now at 80%, China’s e-commerce sector has boomed. Crucially, the government invested heavily to ensure rural areas weren’t left behind, expanding broadband and digital literacy programs. The result: over 940 million users now access government digital services, and the food delivery sector alone employs 14 million people, easing unemployment.
“Digitalization does not only serve first- tier cities like Beijing, it is transforming industrial organization at the county level, from the flow of agricultural produce, small-town business operations to the structure of rural employment.” He says.
This has enabled scattered small and micro-producers across counties to connect to the unified national market. China has also excelled in applied AI across sectors — a quality many Global South countries still lack.
In the agricultural sector, AI is used for pest detection, precision planting, automated harvesting, and yield forecasting, directly strengthening food security. Various initiatives including the creation of world’s first intelligent breeding robot ‘ji’er’ , use of cell phones as new farm tools and adoption of thousands of drones have already been developed driving the digital and smart transformation of agriculture agenda.
In the media sector, CGTN, China’s state broadcaster, has built an AI hub to transform news gathering and dissemination. It uses AI to monitor news alerts and push initial information to audiences in real time while reporters are deployed. They are also “unfreezing” historical moments — turning paintings into short, videos bridging the past, present, and future through artistic AI technology .
Chinese companies have in the meantime embed AI into core operations, not just as add-ons accelerating industrial upgrading .
“AI+ is already driving the evaluation of production and manufacturing from automation to autonomy.” Says Professor Sanxi.
LESSONS FOR THE GLOBAL SOUTH
For the Global South to move from consumer to innovator, three radical shifts must happen;
One of them is definitely not to copy the Chinese model but to develop localized technological culture providing solutions to local problems. Start-ups should avoid importing foreign models and implementing them unchanged.Global South governments must also provide funds for digital research and development which in turn wil create homegrown AI talents and tools.
There should be a deliberate plan to train a new generation of AI engineers, data scientists, and digital entrepreneurs through policy and curriculum reform.Nations should also protect data sovereignty by ensuring they get value from their own data, instead of it only benefiting foreign platforms. Data is a national asset.
