In 2025, the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is booming at an astonishing pace and integrating into every aspect of people's lives and various industries in an unprecedented manner, becoming a key force driving global economic and social transformation.
At the computing power level, intelligent computing power is experiencing explosive growth. According to the "2025 China Artificial Intelligence Computing Power Development Assessment Report" jointly released by International Data Corporation (IDC) and Inspur Information, the scale of China's intelligent computing power reached 725.3 EFLOPS in 2024, with a year - on - year growth of 74.1%, and the market size was 19 billion US dollars, with a year - on - year growth of 86.9%. In the next two years, China's intelligent computing power will continue to grow at a high speed, reaching 1,037.3 EFLOPS in 2025 and 1,460.3 EFLOPS in 2026. Such rapid growth provides a solid "hardware foundation" for the development of AI, making the training of various complex models and the operation of algorithms more efficient.
In terms of technological breakthroughs, 2025 is a crucial year. AI agents have witnessed important development, shifting from "knowledge enhancement" to "execution enhancement" and opening a new era of autonomous decision - making. For example, Microsoft agents can parse business emails, OpenAI's o1/o3 models can complete complex orders, and the release of ChatGPT Tasks by OpenAI all mark that AI agents are no longer simple auxiliary tools but intelligent assistants capable of autonomous decision - making and task execution. At the same time, small models have emerged with the advantages of high efficiency and precision, and technology giants have made arrangements one after another. Small models not only have performance comparable to that of large models but can also achieve efficient deployment with lower computing costs and energy consumption. They perform excellently in handling specific repetitive tasks and open up new paths for the localized scenarios and widespread applications of AI. In addition, generative search has subverted the traditional information acquisition mode, transforming information retrieval from keyword - based to answer - generation, greatly improving the efficiency of information acquisition. However, it also brings challenges in terms of content copyright, credibility, and other aspects.
From the perspective of application scenarios, AI has evolved from single - point applications to diversification, and from general scenarios to industry - specific scenarios. In the 2024 AI industry penetration ranking, the Internet, finance, operators, manufacturing, and government ranked among the top five. The Internet, as the main battlefield for AI technology research and development and application, continues to lead the research and development and application of large models. The financial industry further deepens the integration of AI in risk control, investment decision - making, and personalized wealth management. In the manufacturing industry, AI helps optimize production processes and quality inspection, improving production efficiency and product quality. In the government sector, AI plays an important role in the construction of smart cities and the optimization of public services.
Globally, countries are paying increasing attention to AI and are increasing their investments. In early 2025, Microsoft announced an investment of 80 billion US dollars in AI infrastructure, and China is also actively promoting the construction of intelligent computing centers with a scale of tens of billions of yuan. This continuous investment in AI infrastructure and sovereign AI not only demonstrates a high degree of attention to the AI technology system but also reflects the strategic layout of countries in terms of technological autonomy, which will reshape the global technology competition pattern.
However, the development of AI is not without obstacles. With the enhancement of AI's autonomy and automation capabilities, governance issues such as data security, transparency, and ethics have become increasingly prominent. In the process of computing power development, challenges such as energy consumption and lower - than - expected computing power utilization also exist. Nevertheless, these challenges also prompt the industry to continuously explore solutions, promoting the development of AI towards a more secure, reliable, and efficient direction.
In 2025, the AI industry is standing at a new historical starting point, with both opportunities and challenges. It will continue to profoundly change people's lives and the development models of various industries, becoming an important engine for promoting human social progress. We have every reason to expect that through continuous innovation and exploration, AI will bring more surprises and transformations to the world.