China has emerged as a true ecosystem leader in the global artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, said a senior World Economic Forum expert, who also emphasized that while AI will displace jobs, it is expected to create far more new opportunities through innovation and entrepreneurship.
As the 2026 Summer Davos Forum concluded in northeast China's port city of Dalian on Thursday, Cathy Li, head of AI, Data and Metaverse at World Economic Forum shared her insight with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
According to the forum, an estimated 92 million jobs worldwide are expected to be displaced by AI by 2030. At the same time, the WEF projects the creation of 170 million new roles during the same period.
"We will need to understand how to work with AI. So again, that comes with continued learning, but at the same time we should also expect that many of the organizations are on the same journey. As soon as the workflows and operating models are redesigned, there will be more opportunity, let alone the entrepreneurship that comes with this AI revolution that's going to create even more jobs," said Li.
She also underscored China's strong position in the global AI landscape, from development to application.
"China has been identified as a true ecosystem leader. So first of all, in terms of investments between 2010 and 2024 globally, roughly 600 billion U.S. dollars of AI investment have gone into AI infrastructure and of that amount, 65 percent of the investment come from U.S. and China. Where China really exceeds is not only the development of the AI technology itself. It's its extremely strong industrial base, the data that can be connected, and also the whole ecosystem, including entrepreneurship, including all the different industrial sectors and the real world deployment," she said.
China emerges as global AI ecosystem leader: WEF expert
