The “overt strategy” behind the financial report: Digital China’s AI has already entered the main track of the “15th Five-Year Plan”

A year-end report reveals not only growth but also a company’s strategic commitment and technological path in the era.

China Digital (000034.SZ)'s 2025 annual report, if you only look at the over 165% high growth rate in AI business and the new revenue record surpassing 140 billion yuan, you might easily categorize it as another lucky company riding the AI wave. But in the first year of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” the value of this financial report goes far beyond that—it’s more like a roadmap, clearly marking how to turn “Artificial Intelligence+” from a slogan into a feasible productivity path.

The current market divergence lies precisely in whether one can understand this “map.”

01 The Question of the Era: Where Exactly Is the “Dividing Line” of AI?

The “14th Five-Year Plan” boldly advocates for “developing new quality productivity” and “empowering with digital intelligence technology,” and the 2026 government work report further clarifies the goal to develop a “new form of intelligent economy.” Especially in healthcare, policies explicitly call for AI to be integrated throughout the entire chain of “prevention, diagnosis, treatment, management, and rehabilitation.”

While policy support is strong, the reality for enterprises is a chasm.

Over the past two years, most companies’ AI applications remain at the level of “API calls” and “single-point tools,” such as using large models to write copy or generate summaries. Essentially, this is “tool substitution,” not “process reengineering.” Once it involves the latter, it means touching the core of enterprise operations—the network of processes woven from data, systems, and complex business logic.

Therefore, whether “AI can enter business processes” has become the critical dividing line for realizing AI application value today. Most companies are still watching from the sidelines, while a few players have begun exploring in deep waters.

02 China Digital’s Path: “AI for Process,” a Replicable Problem-Solving Formula

Faced with this era-defining question, China Digital Chairman Guo Wei’s concept of “AI for Process” is not just a vague idea but a set of implementation systems embedded within the company’s overall strategy.

From the 2025 full-year financial report and performance briefing, China Digital is building a three-layer architecture around this core idea:

1. Base Layer (“Enterprise Digital Intelligence Foundation”)

   : Centered on China Digital KunTai computing power, providing stable and reliable underlying support.

2. Model Layer

   : Connecting commercial, open-source, and industry models to build a flexible model supply system.

3. Execution Layer

   : Covering the full lifecycle of intelligent agents (Agents) for construction, operation, management, and optimization.

Above this, the company has identified four specific implementation levers, interconnected:

• Entry Point (China Digital AskLearn AI)

  : Using Token economy as a link to attempt to connect the “scenarios-model-data” closed loop.

• Foundation (Digital Cloud Business)

  : Building an AI-Ready data governance system to solve the core resource of “data.”

• Carrier (Proprietary Brand Products)

  : Developing comprehensive AI-oriented product solutions around next-generation data centers.

• Ecosystem

  : Expanding application boundaries through collaboration.

The goal of this combined approach is clear and singular: to enable AI capabilities not only to “enter” key enterprise processes but also to “operate continuously” and generate value. This directly responds to the “14th Five-Year Plan”’s core proposition of deep integration between digital intelligence technology and the real economy.

03 Key Battleground: The “Process Revolution” in Medical Scenarios Has Been Successfully Implemented

Policy guidance is clear. Due to its demand for efficiency and precision, the healthcare industry has become the forefront testing ground for AI process implementation and a “touchstone” for evaluating solution quality.

Two flagship cases from China Digital are highly convincing:

• Peking Union Medical College Hospital (Perioperative Management of Pancreatic Cancer)

  : AI agents assist doctors in saving about 80% of data processing time in relevant scenarios, with diagnostic accuracy exceeding 94%. This not only improves efficiency but also signifies deep clinical decision-making involvement in high-risk diseases.

• Zhangzhou Hospital, Fujian Province

  : This case more profoundly reveals the meaning of “processization.” Hospital IT staff, using modular tools, can independently adjust disease coding, local corpora, and rules, reducing model adaptation cycles from about 30 days to 7 days.

What does this mean? It means AI has shifted from a “project” requiring long-term external team development to an “internal capability” that hospitals can continuously iterate and respond to quickly. Moving from “project” to “capability” is a critical step in the qualitative leap of AI value realization.

04 Data Validation: Customers Are Voting with “Real Money”

All strategic and case values are ultimately validated by the market. China Digital’s 2025 operational data provides strong positive feedback:

• Breadth and Depth

  : The number of contracted customers increased by 167% year-over-year, with a 17% rise in average deal size, and a 125% increase in customers with over one million yuan. This indicates a rapid expansion of the customer base and a shift from trial to deepening cooperation.

• Industry Breakthrough

  : Internet industry contracts exceeded 60 billion yuan, a 915% YoY surge, demonstrating that its products and capabilities are gaining recognition among the most tech-sensitive clients.

• Revenue Structure

  : Notably, the “AI software and services” business revenue, representing deep application, grew by 165%, significantly outpacing the industry average growth. Overall AI-related business revenue reached 33 billion yuan, up 48% YoY.

The “hidden message” of these numbers is clear: enterprise clients are no longer just paying for computing power or single-point tools; they are paying for the ability to “restructure business processes and improve core operational efficiency” through AI. When this payment logic shifts, it signifies that the “dividing line” has been crossed.

Returning to the initial question, while China Digital’s profit has not been fully released, the “reservoir” of scenarios, customers, and capabilities is already very clear. Under the grand narrative of promoting new quality productivity during the “14th Five-Year Plan,” the market’s ultimate reward will not necessarily go to the earliest technology owners but to those who can best transform technology into stable, replicable process productivity.

Through the “AI for Process” path outlined by China Digital and its successful validation in key industries like healthcare, it has obtained a significant “ticket” to the next stage. The next focus is whether this ticket can be successfully replicated across more industries, turning strategic “bright plans” into sustained and robust financial growth.