This photo taken on March 25, 2024 shows assembly lines at a plant of Xiaomi in Beijing, capital of China. Chinese tech firm Xiaomi on Thursday night released its first self-developed new energy vehicle model SU7. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING -- Every 76 seconds, a new Xiaomi car rolls off the production line at its assembly plant in the suburb of Beijing, where highly automatic machinery is seen roaring at full steam.

In the assembly workshop, more than 700 robots are operating around the clock, guided by artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

Smart factories like this are mushrooming across China. Experts predict the next three to five years will be crucial for rapid advancements in AI technology, which is seen as a driving force behind a new wave of industrial innovation and transformation.

Even in China's traditional industrial heartlands, AI is making irreversible inroads.

Welding robots operate continuously in a factory of Harbin Electric Machinery Co., Ltd. in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. In September, the factory's magnetic pole welding robot workstation was launched, increasing production efficiency by about 40 percent.

"Compared with traditional welding methods, the welding robots offer higher precision, better stability and improved efficiency," said Wei Fangkai, manager of the company's intelligent manufacturing department.

The workstation uses an advanced visual recognition system to quickly identify and locate welding targets, ensuring precision in operations. Additionally, robotic welding helps minimize exposure to hazardous dust, improving workers' safety and health, Wei explained.

Across the old industrial bases in the country's northeast region, many leading manufacturing enterprises are adopting AI and other advanced technologies to chart a course for high-quality development. In Heilongjiang Province alone, 279 provincial-level smart factories and digital workshops have been established so far.

AI isn't just modernizing traditional sectors in China -- it is also revolutionizing the emerging industries.

Every year, 500 satellites are produced at a satellite super factory in Taizhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. The facility, China's first intelligent assembly and integration test center for commercial satellites, is a pioneering hub for space innovation.

The factory features an intelligent network system that integrates satellite design, research and development, production, testing, and operations into a unified framework.

According to the factory, the production efficiency has soared thanks to intelligent technology. The time required to produce a satellite has been reduced from one to two years to just 28 days. Meanwhile, costs have plummeted, with the mass production of commercial satellites now about 45 percent cheaper than traditional methods.

A report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology stated that AI is accelerating the integration of intelligent technologies into manufacturing, signaling a shift towards comprehensive and deep-level transformations in the industry.

China has built nearly 10,000 digitized workshops and smart factories, according to the China Internet Development Report 2024. AI's integration into manufacturing is deepening, and its applications are poised to expand.

A research report released by the 36Kr media platform highlights how AI is transforming nearly every aspect of the manufacturing industry, from product design to manufacturing and operation management.

In product design, AI enhances simulation capabilities, improving both design efficiency and accuracy. In manufacturing, it enables real-time data collection, processing and execution, boosting production quality while reducing costs. Regarding operational management, AI enhances efficiency in areas such as supply chain management, sales forecasting and marketing, optimizing workflows across various scenarios, according to the report.

Experts note that advancements in AI algorithms and the increasing volume of data are expected to unlock broader automation and the potential for fully unmanned production capabilities in the coming years.

"AI models will handle increasingly complex and refined tasks, developing unforeseen new capabilities," said Huang Tiejun, a professor of computer science at Peking University. "In the future, AI will become foundational infrastructure, akin to water and electricity networks."

Pan Jiaofeng, president of the Institutes of Science and Development at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, compared AI's impact to the steam engine in the first industrial revolution, the electric motor in the second, and computers and the Internet in the information age.

"AI is driving a new technological revolution and industrial transformation," Pan added.