China’s AI Push Displaces Workers as Enterprise Adoption Jumps to 47.5%

3 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · Aug 24

160 Beijing programmers, including Fei Zhaojun, lost their jobs after managers judged AI close enough to replace mid-level coding work, reflecting a broader wave of displacement across Chinese offices and factories.
47.5% of Chinese industrial enterprises reported using AI models and agents last year, up from 9.6% in 2024, as Beijing’s “AI Plus” drive accelerates adoption in programming, translation, logistics and content production.
More than half of translation pay has been wiped out in some cases, while China’s live-action short and vertical video series output fell about 75% in the first quarter from a year earlier as generative AI spread.
About 5% urban unemployment and a youth jobless rate roughly triple that are sharpening concern that AI-led productivity gains may worsen weak consumer spending and social stability, even as some workers pivot to AI-assisted freelance work.
1.4 billion people and a rapidly aging population complicate the picture: some analysts say automation could eventually ease labor shortages, rather than only destroy jobs.