Artificial intelligence (AI) has grown into a hot spot industry in recent years，and it has witnessed an increasing number of start-up projects and expanding financing. However, the prospering trend in the field may hit a wall in 2019.
According to a white paper regarding the AI industry released last July by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology? China is home to 4,040 AI companies at present. However, 70 percent of the firms have failed to receive venture capital (风险投资).
In this regard, it's fair enough to say that this year might bring about a cold winter for the industry, at least for those selling "fake" AI technologies.
"It's becoming hard for AI technologies to be applied in the market and 90 percent of the start-ups in this industry may fail if proper fields of application are not found," said Ai Yu, Managing Director of China Everbright Limited, a Hong Kong-based financial services company.
Experts said that AI will see a larger application in people's work and life this year，and core sectors such as AI chips will become more and more professional, making it difficult for entry into this industry.
Large numbers of AI start-ups have been popping up in China, and some of them are leading the world in facial recognition，autopilot and natural language interaction, said Liu Jiong, chairman of the board of Lanting Capital, a cross-border, medical focused strategic consulting and investment firm.
However, there still are many AI firms that haven't found proper methods to make, money, which is an issue that the Chinese AI industry must face in the future.
"Given the current money shortage in the capital market, a large number of companies will be gradually knocked out because of their relatively weak technical strength," said Liu Wanqing, venture partner of DayWin Asset Management. According to him, those backed by powerful technologies are expected to embrace sound development.
Insiders noted that more and more companies were calling themselves AI firms with the inflow of large amount of money into the AI industry, but it still couldn't hide the fact that many of them were knocked off. Blindness and aimless investment would only hold back the healthy development of the industry, and the only way for sustained development is to smash the "bubbles" first.
