Early AI adopters are tending to outperform latecomers amid rapid industrial change, said an expert attending the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2026 in south China's Hainan, where the emerging technology has become a key focus.
Ruan Fang, a BCG Henderson Institute Leader for BHI China, said that AI transformation is already underway across a number of Chinese industries.
"We are also helping many Chinese companies doing AI transformation. We do see there are a few sectors where they enjoy the following attributes. One is data intensive, the consumer goods, telecommunication, and retail, as well as banking. So those are type of industries or sectors where they have abundant data on the technology, or adjacent to technology. And in the past, those sectors are quite used to digitalization. And the third attribute is more related to the change management mindset," said Ruan, speaking with China Global Television on the sidelines of the forum.
She stressed that waiting for AI to mature may leave slow-acting firms struggling to catch up by the time the technology has fully permeated the business ecosystem.
"People always say, let's wait for the AI to become more mature and then conduct AI transformation. But in reality, what we observe is the earlier you adopt AI, actually, the change management mindset that you can get. So the companies, once they get that change management mindset, they can be more agile, they can be more accustomed to the customers' response, and they can be more open to innovation and they can innovate by themselves rather than being disrupted by others. So what we see is AI early adopters tends to win [more] than late adopters," she said.
The BFA Annual Conference 2026 opened on Tuesday with the theme of "Shaping a Shared Future: New Dynamics, New Opportunities, New Cooperation." It will run to Friday.
Founded in 2001, the forum has grown into a key platform for addressing Asian issues and strengthening cooperation both within the region and globally.
A report released earlier at the forum highlights that Asia is overtaking the United States and Europe as the new center for artificial intelligence development.
According to the 2026 Annual Report on Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress, Asia is building its "digital resilience" through the accelerated and inclusive adoption of AI. The report notes that Asian economies are transitioning from participants to frontrunners in the global AI race, leveraging their large digital populations, diverse application ecosystems, and coherent policy frameworks. Among these frontrunners, China stands out with a complete AI supply chain and strong capabilities for large-scale implementation.
Early AI adopters outperform latecomers: expert
