The investment advisory industrys Normandy Moment: Jiufang Zhitu abandons traditional methods, going all in on AI and quantitative strategies.

On the evening of September 9, the stage for the product launch event of Shanghai Jiufang Cloud Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Jiufang Zhito"), a subsidiary of JF SMARTINVEST (9636), was painted in a cool blue tonegiant LED screens displayed the letters "AI" suspended in a three-dimensional manner above a flowing data matrix. The white circular tables and leather chairs, enhanced by the lighting, supported a dual ritual that straddled between a technology launch and an investors' conference. Key members of the management team were present, including JF SMARTINVEST founder, chairman of the board, and CEO Chen Wenbin, deputy general manager of Jiufang Zhito Zhang Peihong, senior director of the Artificial Intelligence Center Wang Bing, director of the Financial Engineering Department Qiu Yingjun, and general manager of Jiufang Zhito and director of Jiufang Financial Research Institute Cheng Wei. Jiufang Zhito is shifting its strategic focus from traditional investment advisory services to a platform-driven phase powered by intelligent agents and quantitative equality. The event atmosphere was filled with fintech vibes, as the large screen showcased the evolution of the securities advisory industry, self-developed supercomputing clusters, and the architecture of quantitative factor libraries. The demonstration also presented the three core functions of "Gupaten Zhihang," with institutional guests, investor representatives, and hundreds of thousands of online viewers witnessing the unveiling of products in the AI native era of investment advisory 4.0. In his opening speech, Chen Wenbin, chairman and CEO of JF SMARTINVEST, provided a thought-provoking judgment: In the future, there will only be two types of companies, those driven by AI and those disrupted by AI. Our stance is not to make AI an assistant, but to let it take over the core productivity of the products. In Jiufang Zhito's strategic narrative, "Investment Research + Technology" has upgraded from a past "dual-driver" model to a "technology-driven investment research" model. As an iterative upgrade of the pilot project, Gupaten Zhihang integrates three key capabilities: Jiufang Lingxi, Gold Mining Plus, and a diverse quantitative ETF strategy. From a commercial perspective, two of the three functions of Gupaten Zhihang are based on quantitative principlesGold Mining primarily focuses on timing and stock selection, while the diverse quantitative ETF emphasizes asset allocation; although Lingxi serves as an AI research assistant, its account diagnosis, anomaly notifications, and skill invocation also rely on quantitative data. During the demonstration, Jiufang Lingxi showcased account health checks, proactive notifications of position changes, and the one-click invocation of hundreds of investment research skills to address common financial illusions presented by general large models; Gold Mining Plus leveraged hundreds of multi-factor engines based on price, volume, capital flow, and market sentiment to dynamically produce star-rated signals, covering trading scenarios such as stock selection, timing, and intra-day trading; the diverse quantitative ETF strategy demonstrated three strategiesoffensive and defensive balance, multi-asset rotation, and industry advancementproducing actionable allocation reference plans based on backtesting and risk control modules, effectively opening professional-level quantitative capabilities to everyday individual investors. Chen Wenbin positioned Gupaten Zhihang within the framework of the universal AI strategy. He revealed that in the first half of the year, JF SMARTINVEST invested about 170 million yuan in R&D, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%, with a R&D team of 657 people; in the second half of the year, efforts will focus on advancing universal AI technology, diverse product upgrades, overseas business, and universal operations, transitioning AI from a tool-based approach to an intelligent agent ecosystem. Cheng Wei added that Jiufang Zhito has formed a multi-tiered matrix of VIP products such as Gupaten Lihang, Super Investor, and mid-range products like Decision Master and Jiuyun Stock & AI Stock Machines; VIP products continuously iterate around "AI + Quantitative," ensuring that research insights and quantitative factors directly feed back to the consumer side, avoiding the disconnect often found between "content as content and models as models." The research institute serves as the brain, while quantitative technology acts as the wings. If we break down this launch event to the product level, a clear three-level structure emerges: the bottom level is Jiufang Financial Research Institute, the middle level is AI and quantitative capabilities, and the top level comprises VIP products for customers. Here, the research institute does not play the role of a "content factory," but rather acts as the "investment research brain" for the entire product matrix. The true value of Jiufang Financial Research Institute lies not in its scale, but in the training dataevery live broadcast, every piece of research, and every in-depth stock analysis contributes high-quality samples for the iteration of AI models. This constitutes a migration path from human investment research to AI investment research: using models to replace part of the investment research work, expanding the past capability of serving only 50 to 100 stocks for in-depth research in a year to 5,000 or even more. Wang Bing, responsible for Jiufang Lingxi, offered system-level solutions addressing three major pain points in the investment advisory industrymodel illusions, information overload, and service homogenization. Its core is establishing an independent "user data sandbox" for each investor: AI actively learns about the users holdings, style, and risk preferences, gradually refining this into an "investment profile" to actively push personalized content rather than treating everyone the same with mass communications. The underlying structure combines Jiufang's proprietary large models with general models, supported by multiple authoritative results and various top conference papers. Qiu Yingjun, director of the Financial Engineering Department, shared insights on two products representing the direction of "quantitative equality." "AI Gold Seeker Plus" addresses traditional tool-related issues, constructing multi-factor models that encompass capital behavior, price-volume relationships, and market sentiment for stock selection, timing, and trading; the "Diverse Quantitative ETF" offers three strategies: offensive and defensive balance, multi-asset approach, and industry advancement. These two teams themselves are testament to Jiufang Zhito's commitment to investing in "AI native" solutionsmore than 40 members in the AI center team, over 70% of whom hold master's or doctoral degrees; the Financial Engineering Department similarly has over 70% of its team with advanced degrees, comprising members with hands-on experience from global quantitative firms. Tencent and Alibaba are ecological partners of Jiufang Zhito, but the underlying quantitative supercomputing matrix, factor libraries, and AI models are all built independently by the companythis "infrastructure, team, algorithms, execution" four-tier closed loop constitutes a protective moat for engineering capabilities. "The research institute is at the front end, AI quantification is in the middle, and VIP products are at the terminal"this is the new triangle Jiufang Zhito has drawn for "Investment Advisory 4.0." 2026 Mid-term Performance Highlights: High-end VIP Products Become Transformational Leverage The product launch was held alongside the 2026 mid-term performance exchange meeting. Although the company did not separately disclose the "proportion of AI quant revenues for VIP," multiple clues can corroborate the improvement in monetization quality: first, the decrease in VIP refund rates indicates that high-priced products with quantitative features are less likely to be returned; second, the launch of the "Supreme Edition" of Decision Master, which includes ETF quantification and AI identification of holdings, now covers approximately 55% of active users with AI services; third, Gupaten Zhihang has bundled Lingxi Black Gold, Gold Mining Plus, and Diverse ETF into a high-end VIP system, further increasing prices and expanding capacity compared to the standalone Gupaten Lihang product. According to the disclosures at the launch event, the integration of Gupaten Zhihang with Gupaten Lihang, Lingxi, Gold Mining Plus, and Diverse ETFs has a total standalone value of approximately 50,000 yuan, while the launch package is priced at 32,800 yuan, which is only 3,000 yuan higher than the previous generation Gupaten Lihang priced at 29,800 yuan, but the depth of quantitative functionalities is markedly improved. Returning to the scene, at the end of the product launch, the activation device illuminated the "Gupaten Zhihang" logo, and Chen Wenbin, along with Zhang Peihong, Wang Bing, Qiu Yingjun, and external guests from Xinhua Credit, Alibaba Cloud, brokerage research, and others, jointly pressed the launch button. For Jiufang, this product is not just a VIP upgrade: the research institute provides understanding, quantitative analysis offers probabilities, AI provides companionship, and licensed investment advisors establish boundaries of responsibility. This Shanghai launch event on September 9 marks the starting point for "AI + Quantitative" as it transitions from an investment phase to a harvest phase. At a juncture where securities advisory is moving from mass live broadcasting to competition among intelligent agents, whether Jiufang Zhito can leverage Gupaten Zhihang to enhance its high-tier VIP offerings will determine whether its next phase of valuation logic transitions from "investment advisory service provider" to "intelligent investment research platform."