Overview: Generative AI technology is sweeping across the world — and China is at the forefront. Companies there are not just experimenting with AI; they are operationalizing it at scale. Smartphone OEMs are shifting their strategies to focus on practical AI use cases and increasing user stickiness in order to justify growing AI investments. At the same time, they face rising competition from internet giants like ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent, which are aggressively expanding their touchpoints with users — threatening the future of OEM-led application distribution and revenue.

Some of these internet players are even exploring the launch of their own AI-powered devices, including smartphones, to get closer to end users and consolidate their ecosystem influence.