This plan is formulated in light of the local conditions of Huai'an City to implement the national and provincial strategic deployment on promoting the innovative development of artificial intelligence (AI), seize the opportunities of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and systematically plan and promote the integrated development of AI and economy and society as a whole.
I. Main Objectives
Huai'an adheres to the principle of "market-oriented, scenario-based, and innovation-driven" and focuses on "industrial agglomeration, scenario empowerment, and ecosystem construction." On this basis, it will promote the innovative development of AI and AI's in-depth integration with various industries, such as the real economy, urban governance, and services for people's livelihood. By 2027, Huai'an will develop more than 15 vertical models in the industrial field, introduce more than 50 new AI projects, each worth RMB 100 million, and cultivate a number of AI solution providers and leading enterprises with core competitiveness in segmented fields. Its AI industrial scale is expected to exceed RMB 15 billion. Moreover, Huai'an will create more than 150 AI application scenarios to build a batch of replicable, scalable applications. The computing power scale will exceed 4000 PFLOPS. It will build 50 high-quality data sets and 2 data annotation demonstration parks with high standards, with the number of data annotation companies in the city surpassing 35. A municipal AI empowerment center will be built to form the coordinated linkage of government, industry, university, research, application, finance, and services, and precisely empower SMEs within the innovation ecosystem.
II. Key Tasks
(I) Consolidating the foundation for industrial development
1. Attracting industrial projects. Huai'an will develop an investment promotion map for the AI industry chain. It will focus on attracting leading and high-growth enterprises in intelligent terminals, core components, algorithm models, and data services through targeted, scenario-based, and business-led investment attraction. It will also encourage these enterprises to establish regional, R&D, and functional headquarters, as well as subsidiaries in Huai'an. Huai'an will refine its technology-oriented investment attraction system, vigorously introduce leading innovation and entrepreneurship talent (teams) with core technologies and intellectual property rights, and strengthen the attraction and cultivation of technology-driven projects. By 2027, more than 100 new AI projects will be introduced.
2. Implementing tiered cultivation of enterprises. Focusing on scenario-based application, intelligent transformation and digital upgrading, achievement commercialization, and talent training, Huai'an will strengthen policy support and targeted services to build a tiered cultivation system for high-tech enterprises and specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative "little giants." It will intensify efforts to cultivate small and medium-sized AI enterprises to bring together a group of high-growth AI companies. By 2027, the city aims to gather more than 15 AI enterprises with annual sales exceeding RMB 10 million, add over 700 smart factories, and cultivate more than 120 national high-tech enterprises.
3. Promoting the development of industrial clusters. Leveraging the foundations of Huai'an Economic and Technological Development Zone, Huai'an High-Tech Zone, and Nanjing-Huai'an Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park, the city will develop several industrial park carriers featuring the AI industry. It will support the Huai'an Science and Education Industrial Park in creating an "Innovation Core" and establishing an AI business cluster. Moreover, Huai'an will promote the intelligent transformation of Huai'an E-commerce Modern Logistics Park and Hongze Science and Technology Innovation Business Center, accelerate the construction of OPC business demonstration parks such as Suhuai Smart Bay and Wisdom Valley. By 2027, 10 OPC entrepreneurial communities will be built to gather more than 500 innovative and entrepreneurial talent people.
4. Building a strong public service platform. Huai'an will promote the construction of municipal AI empowerment centers, integrate industrial chain resources, and develop high-quality vertical industry model repositories and solution libraries. It will create an "AI toolbox" and low-code development environments to lower the threshold for SMEs to adopt AI applications. Besides, Huai'an will improve the citywide intellectual property protection service platform and strengthen the creation, commercialization, and application of intellectual property.
(II) Advancing the "AI plus" empowerment initiative
5. AI + industrial manufacturing. Huai'an adheres to application-driven development and the opening up of scenarios and actively promotes the empowerment of new industrialization through AI technology. It will deepen the integrated application of AI technology in fields such as chemicals, machinery, and electronics. The perception, interaction, control, coordination, and autonomous decision-making capabilities of products and systems will be comprehensively enhanced to achieve production empowerment, O&M upgrades, and collaborative optimization of industrial chains. By 2027, Huai'an is expected to see more than 100 AI application scenarios in the industrial sector.
6. AI + modern agriculture. Focusing on smart planting, smart agricultural machinery, and digitalizing the entire industrial chain, efforts will be made to create "AI + modern agriculture" demonstration benchmarks. Huai'an will deepen the application of AI in agricultural product quality testing, cold chain logistics optimization, and intelligent production-sales matching to boost agricultural production efficiency, enhance product quality, and drive industrial upgrading. By 2027, the broad application of agricultural robots and smart equipment in sowing, plant protection, and harvesting will be promoted, with over 10 large-scale operational scenarios established.
7. AI + trade and consumption. Focusing on consumption clusters, such as Huaihai Road Commercial District and Shuidukou CBD, Huai'an encourages commercial complexes to utilize AI foot traffic vision analysis systems to monitor heat distribution, consumer pathways, and dwell time in real time, empowering merchants with precision marketing and business format adjustments. Huai'an will promote trade enterprises to build AI-powered product selection platforms and optimize product mixes for "personalized store experiences" based on consumption big data. By 2027, a group of "AI + commerce" immersive consumption scenarios and benchmark enterprises in new retail will be cultivated.
8. AI + e-commerce. Huai'an will promote the deep integration of AI across e-commerce processes and scenarios to help build a regional e-commerce hub. It will encourage enterprises to implement digital transformation across the entire chain, including smart product selection, warehousing, logistics, precision marketing, and intelligent customer service. Besides, Huai'an will actively explore new applications such as digital avatar livestreaming and smart shopping guides to create a "Huai'an Specialty" livestreaming e-commerce matrix. By 2027, over 10 AI application scenarios in e-commerce will be cultivated, promoting lightweight AI applications in more than 150 e-commerce enterprises, with AI penetration in the e-commerce sector reaching over 70%.
9. AI + smart city. Huai'an will intensively promote the construction of "Integrated Urban Management via One Network" and improve the intelligent supervision system for the safe operation of urban infrastructure. It will integrate multi-source data such as housing and urban-rural development and water conservancy, jointly build an urban information model platform, promote the integrated deployment of new technologies such as large models and intelligent agents, empower key areas such as waterlogging prevention and control and environmental monitoring, and improve the efficiency of intelligent early warning and classified disposal of events. By 2027, a modern urban infrastructure smart supervision system featuring "one map for comprehensive supervision + one network for smart monitoring" will be formed in Huai'an.
10. AI + digital government affairs. Huai'an will deepen the integration of AI with the "efficiently completing tasks" initiative. It will expand applications such as the "saying while handling" government affairs model and intelligent pre-review to achieve smart handling of individual matters and cross-departmental collaborative approval. It plans to develop a core database for the 12345 hotline (a non-emergency service channel) to promote the application of data in areas such as public service demands. By 2027, the government affairs large model platform will be upgraded, a thematic dataset for the 12345 hotline will be established, and the "saying while handling" scenarios will be promoted citywide.
11. AI + smart cultural tourism. Huai'an will promote the application of AI and VR/AR technologies in cultural tourism scenarios such as the Former Residence of Zhou Enlai, the Journey to the West Theme Park, and Qingjiangpu Scenic Area along the Liyunhe Canal Cultural Corridor. It plans to develop intelligent tour guides, interactive experiences, and digital cultural and creative products for scenic areas to foster immersive digital cultural tourism experiences. By 2027, more than 15 application scenarios will be developed.
12. AI + transportation and logistics. Huai'an will support the intelligent upgrade of "air—rail—road—water" multimodal transport to form a smart logistics ecosystem that is "data-driven, collaborative and efficient, safe and reliable." It will optimize the "Chengke e-Home" smart transportation platform to achieve integrated dispatching and information services for buses, rail transit, and parking resources. AI technologies will be applied to optimize traffic signal timing and congestion warnings to enhance urban commuting efficiency. By 2027, more than 10 application scenarios will be developed in Huai'an.
13. AI + modern finance. Huai'an will promote "AI + Finance" intelligent agent applications across banking, insurance, securities, and other financial institutions. It encourages financial institutions to explore the use of AI to empower the upgrading of financial products and the transformation of service models. It will also deepen the application of fintech and promote the digital and intelligent transformation of the financial sector. By 2027, more than 10 "AI + Finance" scenarios will be created.
14. AI + employment and entrepreneurship. Huai'an will promote the use of AI by human resources service agencies for precise job matching, intelligent resume parsing, vocational competency assessment, and employment trend analysis. It will develop intelligent assistants for entrepreneurship services to provide one-stop support, including policy inquiries, financing matchmaking, and market analysis, leveraging data to stabilize employment and safeguard public well-being. Moreover, the city will explore scenarios such as "AI + virtual recruiter" and "intelligent interview rooms" to reduce corporate recruitment costs and improve talent-job matching efficiency. By 2027, more than 10 AI application scenarios will be developed in Huai'an.
15. AI + smart education. Huai'an will promote AI general education coverage across all educational stages, and encourage the use of intelligent teaching and research tools, AI teaching assistants, and the national smart education platform for primary and secondary schools to narrow urban-rural and inter-school gaps. For vocational schools, it will introduce AI-related majors and build AI industry-education integration training bases. By 2027, Huai'an will establish a group of smart education-oriented schools where intelligent teaching tools are widely used as a norm.
16. AI + inclusive healthcare. Huai'an will promote the use of AI auxiliary tools across medical imaging, pathology, and chronic disease management to enhance primary care institutions' diagnostic capabilities and improve the consistency of care. It will build an integrated service system covering intelligent triage, online follow-ups, prescription workflow management, and drug delivery. By 2027, Huai'an aims to achieve a coverage rate of 70% or more in AI-enabled scenarios across secondary and above public hospitals, with a significant increase in the uptake of AI-based diagnostic assistance in primary healthcare institutions.
17. AI + eldercare service. Huai'an will build a smart eldercare service system and accelerate the deployment of intelligent terminals and age-friendly upgrades for home-based monitoring, emergency call functions, fall detection, and health management. The city will also advance the development of smart management platforms for nursing homes and explore intelligent capabilities such as bed allocation, dietary nutrition management, rehabilitation nursing, and safety supervision. By 2027, Huai'an will ensure full coverage of smart application scenarios across all eldercare institutions in the city.
(III) Strengthening Innovation Resource Support
18. Carrying out focused breakthroughs in core technologies. It will support Huai'an-based universities and research institutes in concentrating on frontier areas and priority fields of AI to develop core technologies. Huai'an will also encourage enterprises to take the lead in forming innovation consortia for joint problem-solving and will support companies in developing influential and commercially valuable AI agents and large models through industry–university–research collaborations. By 2027, Huai'an will provide municipal-level funding support for more than 15 projects in basic research and technology breakthroughs.
19. Establishing specialized R&D institutions. The city will leverage existing R&D bodies, such as the Huai'an Industrial Technology Research Institute and the Huai'an Research Institute of Nanjing Normal University, to promote joint school–enterprise development of laboratories, technology innovation centers, enterprise technology centers, and industrial engineering and piloting centers. Huai'an will also accelerate the construction of the pilot-testing platform for intelligent terminals and their systems at Jiangsu Vocational College of Electronics and Information to improve the effectiveness of enterprise R&D achievement commercialization. By 2027, more than 10 new R&D institutions will be introduced and cultivated.
20. Attracting and cultivating professionals. Huai'an will include AI industry talent in the municipal directory of scarce talent, establish a "needs database" and a "resources database," and organize targeted matching and recruitment activities. Huai'an will also optimize the policy framework of "Huaishang Talent Program," provide high-level talent with supporting benefits such as housing purchase subsidies and support for children's education. Besides, the city will further strengthen cooperation between universities and enterprises by offering "AI+ entrepreneurship" micro-majors and training courses, building AI training bases, and fostering an integrated talent system featuring "high-end global talent attraction plus local cultivation."
(IV) Strengthening Resource and Factor Support
21. Building an integrated computing service. Huai'an will build an integrated computing-power service system. The city will advance major projects, including the China Mobile Yangtze River Delta (Huai'an) Computing Center and the Nanjing-Huai'an Smart Green Computing Power Center. It will integrate its computing power into an integrated computing-power scheduling platform and provide end-to-end computing-power services to meet multi-field, multi-level computing-power needs. By 2027, Huai'an's total computing-power scale is expected to exceed 4,000 PFLOPS.
22. Deepening the reform of data elements. Huai'an will improve institutional arrangements for the authorization and operation of public data, as well as data circulation and trading. It will continuously update its two catalogs: an authorized-operation data catalog and a data-product catalog. Besides, Huai'an will perform specialized data labeling and processing and develop a set of high-quality, scenario-driven, standardized, and reliable industry datasets. Besides, Huai'an will further integrate datasets into industry large-model training, smart-product R&D, and the rollout of typical use cases. By 2027, Huai'an will build the Huai'an Data Port, with more than 300 data products listed cumulatively, and will build more than 50 high-quality datasets.
23. Fostering an ecosystem for innovative model applications. The city will actively attract and support the deployment of various large models. Huai'an will also support enterprise teams in lightweight, specialized model adaptation and scenario-based deployment. It will routinely organize supply–demand matchmaking in areas such as industrial development, modern agriculture, and government services. It will also promote deep integration between large models and key industries to deliver efficient enablement. By 2027, Huai'an is expected to deploy at least 5 industry-specific characteristic small models successfully and will take shape an ecosystem of positive industrial development featuring coordinated enablement from large and small models.
24. Strengthening financial–fiscal coordination and creating a supportive environment. Huai'an will accelerate the formation of various funds and support counties and districts in setting up AI industry funds and venture capital funds. It will guide financial institutions to develop financial services such as intellectual property pledge financing and equity financing and promote fiscal–financial products tailored to the AI industry. Through measures such as issuing computing-power vouchers, model vouchers, and subsidies for high-quality datasets, Huai'an will promote an inclusive and easy-to-use intelligent computing-power supply, support model and algorithm development, and reduce the costs of using data and computing resources. The city will host innovation and entrepreneurship competitions (AI special session), "AI+ manufacturing" technology salons, and showcases of typical application scenarios. Moreover, it will build platforms for supply–demand matching and resource interconnection. Huai'an will establish and improve coordinated protection mechanisms for AI technology patents, algorithm innovation, and data property rights. The city will explore AI safety monitoring and early-warning initiatives to promote safe, compliant, and healthy development of services enabled by large models and other AI applications.
III. Organization and Implementation
The Municipal Development and Reform Commission of Huai'an will play a leading and coordinating role. It will strengthen overall planning and resource integration, and establish a standardized work-scheduling and coordination mechanism. Municipal departments will be responsible for advancing AI work and developing AI application scenarios within their respective industries and fields. They will promote cross-department joint development of scenarios, shared resources, and interoperable platforms. Each county and district will build on its resource endowments and industrial foundation to carry out differentiated and characteristic innovation pilot projects. This will drive the deep integration of AI technology with the real economy and accelerate deployment and application. Huai'an will develop a number of scenario application projects that can be replicated and scaled up, actively attract and cultivate high-quality enterprises, innovation teams, and high-growth projects, and foster a new pattern of regional coordination and complementary strengths for industrial development.