Joe Ngai, chairman of McKinsey's offices in Greater China, makes a speech during the Inclusion Conference on the Bund held in Shanghai on September 7, 2023. Photo: Feng Yu/GT

The Chinese market holds great opportunities for development, and there is no other market in the world that can replace it , Joe Ngai, chairman of McKinsey's offices in Greater China said on Thursday during the Inclusion Conference on the Bund held in Shanghai.

According to Ngai's observations on China's future development, he noted that after conservative estimates, in the next 10 years, if China's annual GDP growth rate only reached 2 percent, its 10 years of growth in GDP is still equivalent to an additional India; and if the country's average annual GDP growth rate in the next 10 years reached 5 percent, its 10 years of growth in GDP is equivalent to the sum of the GDP of India, Japan and Indonesia.

In addition to remaining optimistic about China's economy, Ngai was bullish on the generative AI industry, believing it will open up a track worth more than $1 trillion.

He said that the technological storm of generative AI has swept across the world this year, promising to start a new round of technological and industrial change that will matter for the next eight to 10 years. "With a potential benefit to the global economy of $25 trillion, AI is one of the most important tracks for all businesses, and its era has just begun."

According to Ngai, the industry could create an additional $240 billion to $460 billion in value per year in the high-tech industry and $240 billion to $390 billion per year in retail and consumer goods; and $200 billion to $340 billion per year across the banking industry. 

At the same time, he noted that the application of generative AI could contribute significantly to productivity gains and providing new jobs.

During a forum on banking digitalization of the conference on Friday, 92 percent of the 200 bank executives revealed that their banks plan to increase investment in AI in the future; 79 percent stated that they are exploring or plan to explore the application of big models, and 75 percent believed that big models will land in the banking industry within one to three years.

In addition to AI and native cloud, more than 200 bank managers also believed that blockchain, graph computing, trusted computing, green computing and other technologies will have a profound impact on the future development of the sector. 

The Inclusion Conference on the Bund, centered on the theme of "Technology for a sustainable future," kicked off in Shanghai on Thursday. This three-day conference aims to foster the exploration of technology in cutting-edge fields.

On the same day, Ant Group officially released its financial large language model (LLM), along with two new applications powered by the financial LLM: Zhixiaobao 2.0, an intelligent financial assistant for consumers, and Zhixiaozhu 1.0, an intelligent business assistant serving financial industry professionals.

At present, the financial LLM is also testing applications in the fields of wealth management and insurance. In the future, all of Ant Group's digital financial business in cooperation with financial institutions will be fully connected to this model, helping cooperative institutions to digitally upgrade and intelligently transform.

Global Times