Global business leaders share ideas on AI-driven growth in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Oct. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from english.shanghai.gov.cn

Shanghai should better leverage artificial intelligence to integrate services with manufacturing and consumption and nurture more growth engines, experts and executives from leading multinational companies said.

The comments were made during the 38th meeting of the International Business Leaders' Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai, held on Oct 11 under the theme of promoting innovation-driven development of the service sector.

Initiated in 1989, the IBLAC has grown into a think tank for Shanghai mayors, with 42 multinational executives from 14 countries attending this year's edition.

Shanghai has a unique advantage to better leverage technology thanks to its strong industrial base, its close ties with the rest of the Yangtze River Delta region and a mature service industry, Mohamed Kande, global chairman of PwC, said.

He suggested Shanghai connect technologies, research and capital with international service providers to address real-economy challenges.

Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and executive chairman of S4 Capital and former chairman of IBLAC, said that Shanghai is becoming a testing ground for global AI governance and the intelligent transformation of the services sector.

For the global service sector, AI has seen its role transitioning from an efficiency tool to a "value-chain restructurer". Shanghai should thus further align with international rules, facilitate data flow, open up more application scenarios, build up a more talent-friendly ecosystem and seek international coordination to make it a global innovation hub for AI-empowered services, he suggested.

Applauding Shanghai's strong manufacturing foundation as well as a rich pool of AI companies, professional service providers, multinational companies and long-term capital, Zhang Lei, founder and chairman of Hillhouse Investment, said that the city should attach greater importance to the real deployment of AI.

More key scenarios that affect companies' operations should be opened up. Shanghai should also cultivate a group of forward-deployed engineers and professional service enterprises that understand both AI and industries. In this way, more AI applications and service capabilities successfully tested in the Chinese market can go global from Shanghai, he said.

According to Gary S. Guthart, executive chair of the board of directors at Intuitive Surgical, combining high-quality medical data with AI and robotics can create new frontiers in medical care. Shanghai has unique advantages for such transformation by piloting the development of high-quality datasets for robot-assisted surgeries, experimenting with new approaches for secure medical data sharing, and building a "Shanghai model" for the responsible use of medical data that can be replicated nationwide.

Jean-Paul Agon, chairman of L'Oreal Group, believed that AI can provide consumers with tailor-made products by connecting the online and offline shopping experiences. He added that Shanghai should improve its business ecosystem to become a hub connecting global innovation rules.

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https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-IBLACShanghai2026/20261012/b3f93e5579ea4b78b499289a9cfe2f11.html

SOURCE english.shanghai.gov.cn