China intelligent agent summit kicks off in Changzhou for 2026

China’s decision to brand a national “intelligent agent developer conference” is more than just another AI show; it signals that agentic systems are being elevated to a core industrial priority. Rather than focusing only on frontier foundation models, the Changzhou event is about turning those models into productive agents that can sit inside factories, logistics networks, and municipal systems. That aligns with Beijing’s broader framing of AI as a driver of “new quality productive forces,” where the emphasis is on deployment into heavy industry and manufacturing, not just internet services.([eet-china.com](https://www.eet-china.com/mp/a464616.html))

For the global AI race, this matters because agent tooling and integration know‑how are where a lot of near‑term leverage lies. If Chinese ecosystems standardise around common agent frameworks, datasets, and evaluation practices, they can compress the time it takes to turn any new model—domestic or imported—into line‑of‑business agents. That can offset some disadvantages on raw model quality or GPU access.

It also hints at a bifurcation: US‑led players are racing to push reasoning benchmarks and synthetic data at scale, while China is building mass developer capacity to wire agents into its industrial base. Over the medium term, whoever best marries agentic AI with real‑world workflows is likely to capture the most durable economic and geopolitical advantage.