IDC: By 2024, the overall market size of large-scale modeling applications in China will reach 47.9 billion RMB.

Preliminary IDC data shows that the overall market size of large-scale applications in China is expected to reach 47.9 billion RMB in 2024 (excluding infrastructure for computing power). Cloud providers, large-scale model startups, operators, and traditional solution providers each have a place in the market. Looking at the consumer market, a survey conducted by IDC in December 2024 among 2504 consumers globally found that 69% of people have used generative AI applications, and 22% of people use generative AI applications every day. The future prospects of large-scale applications highlighted at this year's MWC show that more innovation in edge and on-device AI is worth looking forward to. Intelligent hardware to watch at MWC Traditional intelligent hardware products are undergoing a super intelligent upgrade driven by large-scale models. Products to watch include innovative generative AI applications in the fields of smartphones, automobiles, and floor cleaning robots. Among these, the most noteworthy is the intelligent glasses that are expected to quickly land in the market. Additionally, some relatively novel hardware products have also been seen at MWC, such as smart rings, smart wristbands, smart pendants, etc. These products integrate the capabilities of large-scale models such as audio-to-text, image-to-text, real-time translation, etc., providing users with real-time intelligent interaction experiences and opening up greater imagination for the era of "everything intelligent." Overall, the current innovative applications of large-scale models in hardware mainly focus on intelligent assistants for location and queries, AI searches for search scenarios, AI voice tools for audio generation or speech-to-text, and visual AI tools for image and video generation. Other vertical applications include environmental monitoring in smart homes, health monitoring in smart wearables, and intelligent driving and cockpits in the automotive sector. The innovation of generative AI applications is driving each hardware product towards continuous "embodied intelligence." Opportunities for on-device AI implementation IDC data shows that by 2024, the market size of large-scale applications in China will reach 47.9 billion RMB. Market leaders in this space include Baidu, Alibaba Cloud, Sensetime, Inspur Cloud, Zhipu, AINNOVATION, Telecom AI Company, Xiyu Technology, among others. In the main market for large-scale model construction - state-owned enterprises, Iflytek Co., Ltd., and Baidu are leading the way. However, most of the current applications are deployed in the cloud, and as large-scale model technology continues to mature, it will bring more opportunities to the consumer market. A new story of cloud-edge cooperation - on-device large-scale model deployment. It is expected that large-scale models in home appliances, tablets, smartphones, headphones, glasses, and the automotive industry will continuously break through the bottlenecks of computing power and communication, continually improve the on-device- edge-cloud collaborative inference capabilities, and even achieve "zero power consumption terminals," rolling out more innovative applications. The rise of software content creation platforms. The development of large-scale models and intelligent entities will bring about a new creator ecosystem, with the creator economy growing. The global millions of content creators who earn income through publishing and sharing content represent a huge potential market for generative AI applications and creative tools infused with generative AI. An increasing number of low-code, no-code intelligent entity development tools will also nurture a new wave of entrepreneurship by lowering the threshold for application development. Looking ahead, Lu Yanxia, Research Director of IDC China, stated that 2025 will be the year when large-scale models will initiate a restructuring of all applications, and the connection between ToB and ToC will become even closer. The market can expect truly efficient productivity enhancement tools, super applications that create new experiences, further advancements in intelligent hardware towards embodied intelligence, and intelligent entity platforms where everyone can become a developer and content producer. We can imagine that the moment of super intelligence, where everything is intelligent, is on the horizon.