On September 20, during the 2026 World Manufacturing Convention held in Hefei, Anhui Province, the National Industrial Information Security Development Research Center unveiled its latest report. According to the findings, in the first half of this year, the penetration rate of key artificial intelligence (AI) application scenarios within China's manufacturing sector soared to 34.2%. Concurrently, the national level of informatization and industrialization integration leaped to 67.1, signaling that China's manufacturing sector has collectively stepped into a new era of coordinated development, characterized by digitalization, networking, and intelligence.

Specifically, the groundwork for digitalization has been steadily reinforced. The proportion of enterprises achieving digitalization in research and development (R&D) and design, production and manufacturing, as well as operation and management, stood at 86.3%, 69.5%, and 81.4%, respectively. Networked integration has witnessed profound expansion, with nearly half of the enterprises engaging in networked collaboration. Moreover, innovative formats and models, such as digital twins, chain-network collaboration, and intelligent production, are continuously emerging.

The adoption of intelligent applications has also accelerated, with the penetration rate of key AI technology application scenarios climbing by 5.5 percentage points year-on-year to reach 34.2%. Notably, 10.6% of large-scale manufacturing enterprises have harnessed AI large models to propel business innovation.