– Article in partnership with Huawei –
When electricity entered our lives, it was seen with both enthusiasm and caution. At first, it demands new rules, infrastructure, and trust, but soon it will become so deeply integrated into our daily lives that it will seem invisible—yet indispensable. This is the fate of all revolutionary technologies and the core message of Huawei Connect 2025 – “All Intelligence”: AI is no longer a distant promise but a tangible reality to be guided with vision, leadership, and a human-centered approach. The challenge is not whether to adopt it, but how to integrate it safely and responsibly, turning its potential into real value—just as happened with electricity.
Summary
AI Emerges as Everyday Reality
Like electricity, artificial intelligence has reached the point where it is no longer perceived as an experiment. It has become a structural component of business and society, and the central question is how to turn this presence into tangible value.
As Leo Chen, Senior Vice President, President of Enterprise Sales, Huawei, underlined in his keynote at Huawei Connect 2025, the challenge is not adoption itself but the ability to generate practical outcomes. To address this, he outlined five findings that frame the path to industrial intelligence:
- the choice of high-value scenarios,
- the importance of vertical models built on quality data,
- the rising demand for large-scale inference,
- the emergence of human–AI collaboration as a new paradigm,
- the need for governance as a prerequisite for trust.
To put these principles into practice, Huawei presented the ACT pathway—Assess, Calibrate, Transform—as a structured approach. The pathway begins with assessing business scenarios that hold the greatest potential for impact. The second step is to calibrate AI models with vertical and proprietary data so they reflect the specific conditions of each industry. The third is to transform operations at scale, embedding AI agents into workflows so that value creation becomes measurable and repeatable.
The message is clear. AI has already moved into the present, and enterprises need structured frameworks that connect strategy, data, and processes. With this foundation, technological capability can evolve into measurable outcomes and lasting competitive advantage.
High-Value Scenarios Ignite Real Change
The first dimension of this structured approach is the careful selection of high-value scenarios. When artificial intelligence is applied to processes that sit at the core of operations, it generates change that is visible and measurable.
Huawei illustrated this perspective with examples from different industries.
In the energy industry, China Southern Power Grid created the MegaWatt model on Ascend platform. By combining computer vision and natural language processing, it multiplied the efficiency of defect detection in power line inspections and raised accuracy to more than ninety percent.
In healthcare, West China Hospital adopted an AI-powered medical record system developed with Huawei and its partner Runda. The system produces accurate clinical documentation in one second and allows doctors to dedicate more time to patient care.
These cases reflect a clear lesson. Enterprises that focus on high-value scenarios build both credibility and momentum. They create the basis for large-scale adoption, showing how AI can progress from technical potential to practical impact.
Vertical AI Models on Proprietary Data
To address the tension between potential and practical impact, Huawei stresses the importance of moving beyond general-purpose models and focusing on those adapted to specific industries. General models can provide a foundation, but they often lack the accuracy required when enterprises operate in complex environments.
The strength of vertical models comes from proprietary data. When trained and fine-tuned on domain-specific information, they deliver higher precision, improve reliability, and generate outcomes that directly support critical processes. Huawei pointed to projects in sectors such as energy, banking, and healthcare to illustrate how this approach creates results that generic systems cannot match.
Enterprises that invest in vertical models transform their data into strategic assets. This creates resilience and builds competitive advantages that are difficult to reproduce.
Human–AI Collaboration and Governance
The resilience and competitive advantage that artificial intelligence can bring also depend on human commitment. Organizations must create conditions for collaboration between people and AI systems, supported by new skills, cultural openness, and leadership that builds trust.
As AI takes the role of operational partner, governance becomes essential. Risks such as uncontrolled autonomy or lack of traceability must be addressed through strong security frameworks and ethical principles. Huawei emphasized that sustainable AI requires systematic governance to ensure accountability and trust.
Human–AI collaboration is therefore both an opportunity and a responsibility, opening new ways of working while demanding frameworks that guarantee long-term value. Turning this responsibility into practice also requires robust infrastructure and skilled talent, which provide the foundation for industrial intelligence at scale.
Huawei envisages a shared future of artificial intelligence, in which different organisations learn, adapt and innovate as part of a single ecosystem. Share on X
Infrastructure and Talent for Scale
This foundation was made concrete at Huawei Connect 2025, where the company illustrated how advanced infrastructure and the growth of professional skills enable AI to move from strategy to execution. Examples included the Ascend AI SuperPoD for large-scale training and inference, the Unified Cache Manager to cut latency and improve efficiency, and 800GE networking with StarryLink modules to guarantee reliability in high-volume computing clusters. These cases demonstrate that industrial AI relies on both advanced engineering and human expertise, rather than solely on algorithms.
This focus also responds to the growing demand for large-scale inference, which is one of the main forces shaping industrial AI. Reliable infrastructure is essential for moving from pilot projects to high-volume operations, where inference must be fast, accurate, and cost-efficient.
Huawei also stressed the human side of enablement. Through its AI Talent Enablement Program, the company supports professionals in developing, deploying, and operating AI agents. This initiative reflects the belief that progress in technology must be matched with the growth of human capabilities, so that enterprises can turn intelligent systems into real outcomes.
But even the strongest infrastructure and the most skilled talent cannot create lasting value in isolation. At scale, industrial intelligence depends on ecosystems where knowledge, resources, and solutions are shared across organizations.
Ecosystem Collaboration for Industrial Intelligence
Creating long-term value extends beyond the boundaries of a single enterprise. When artificial intelligence is applied at scale, collaboration across ecosystems becomes essential, since no organization can address all challenges alone.
Huawei emphasized this at Huawei Connect 2025 with its “Huawei + Partners” model, which combines open systems, enablement platforms, and shared expertise. This approach has already attracted thousands of partners, from technology providers to consulting firms and independent software vendors.
As tangible outcomes of this collaboration, nine new solutions were launched. Among them are the City AI Center, the Banking AI and Foundation Model, the Medical Technology Digital and Intelligence 2.0, and the Smart Logistics & Warehousing solution. Along with other projects, they show how industry needs are being met with concrete applications.
By building such ecosystems, Huawei shows that the future of artificial intelligence is collective, shaped by networks of organizations that learn, adapt, and innovate together.
Shaping Industrial Intelligence with Human Responsibility
Reflecting on the messages shared at Huawei Connect, it becomes clear that artificial intelligence is reaching the stage of electricity: a presence so ordinary that it will be noticed more for its absence than for its presence. AI is already established, and its value depends on structured approaches such as the ACT pathway, which helps enterprises move from scenario selection to model calibration and large-scale transformation.
Real progress will come from vertical models trained on proprietary data, from cultures that enable collaboration between people and AI, and from governance frameworks that ensure trust and accountability. Equally important is the ecosystem dimension, where co-innovation with partners turns potential into solutions across industries.
Technology defines possibilities, but leadership gives them direction. The future of industrial intelligence will be sustainable only if it remains rooted in human responsibility, vision, and adaptability, and its true value will depend on our capacity to guide AI with wisdom and foresight.
- Original article previously published here.
