At the end of last year, the AIGC wave led by ChatGPT swept the world with lightning speed.
When the demographic dividend of Internet technology is gradually fading, AIGC is like the secret key that opens the door to general artificial intelligence, accelerating the arrival of the era of digital intelligence. As OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: A new Moore's Law may soon appear, that is, the number of intelligence in the universe doubles every 18 months.
Therefore, it is a must-answer question for all technology companies: under the tremendous changes brought about by the AIGC wave, how should the operation management, business model and even the thinking logic be adjusted and adapted to overcome the challenges brought about by the huge market changes and truly grasp the times? new increment of .
Recently, AsiaInfo Technology officially announced the semi-annual report for the fiscal year 2023. The revenue scale, new orders, gross profit margin and profit all showed a steady growth trend. AsiaInfo's deep understanding and rapid deployment of AIGC also allows us to see Chinese technology companies attacking in the era of digital intelligence.
Business is growing steadily
We all know that the only constant in the world is change. This year's market is more complex and volatile.
On the one hand, with the official release of the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China" at the beginning of the year and the official launch of the East-to-West Computing Project, the high-quality development of the digital economy will bring more and more complex market demands; on the other hand, the drastic changes in the external environment The uncertainty factors in the market have increased sharply; more importantly, the emergence of the AIGC wave has made AI technology begin to truly reshape the thinking logic and business models of all walks of life.
The superposition of multiple factors not only tests the long-term strategic determination of technology companies, but also puts forward higher requirements for the adaptability of technology companies. Gao Nianshu, executive director and CEO of AsiaInfo Technology, revealed that in the complex external environment, the company, on the basis of adhering to the strategy of "one consolidation, three developments", proactively and moderately guided by high-quality development, balanced the pace of business expansion, and ensured that the company Healthy and sustainable development.
From the financial report data, the operating income of AsiaInfo Technology in the first half of the year reached RMB 3.282 billion, an increase of 5.6% year-on-year, of which the income from three new businesses reached RMB 1.091 billion, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year, accounting for 33.3% of operating income; Business orders increased by more than 20% year-on-year, of which new orders for three new businesses increased by more than 70% year-on-year; gross profit margin was 34.9%, an increase of 1.0 percentage points year-on-year; net profit was RMB 212 million, an increase of 12.3% year-on-year; operating cash flow A year-on-year improvement of 13.7%. Earnings per share was RMB 0.24, a year-on-year increase of 14.3%.
It is not difficult to find that AsiaInfo's own operating conditions are good, and it can still achieve steady development in a complex and changeable market environment. All financial indicators are relatively good, and its transformation is fast and stable.
For example, the proportion of its three new businesses - digital intelligence operation, vertical industry and enterprise cloud, and OSS (operator network support system) business has increased to 33.3%, truly achieving "one-third of the world", showing that AsiaInfo's ability to adjust its business structure in recent years; moreover, the number of orders for the three new businesses has maintained a very high growth rate, indicating that the competitiveness of its new businesses has gained more and more recognition in the market.
Gao Nianshu said bluntly: "The profit and gross profit of the three new businesses may not be too high in the early stage of development, but with more and more standard products and applications, and the steady development of the business, the gross profit of the three new businesses will gradually increase, and the new business Orders are also expected to maintain a growth trend in the second half of the year. The goal of three new businesses to account for 50% of revenue by 2025 will not change."
Gao Nianshu, Executive Director and CEO of AsiaInfo
In terms of vertical industries, AsiaInfo still performed well in the first half of the year. The revenue of energy, government affairs, transportation and other strategic industries in the first half of the year increased by 29.4% year-on-year. Among them, the energy industry performed extremely well, with the business scale nearly three times that of the same period last year; in the transportation industry, AsiaInfo won the Chongqing East Railway Station Smart Hub Project, with a project value of more than 600 million yuan, showing strong market performance.
"Standard products + solutions are AsiaInfo's development model in key strategic industries. Standardized products have no industry characteristics, such as cloud network, digital intelligence, IT, etc. The products are universal and applicable to any industry." Gao Nianshu introduced, " Solutions have certain industry attributes and require industry-specific expertise, teams, and talents. The integration of standard products + solutions + project management and control can bring sales and bargaining power while deepening key industries. Assure."
In addition to the steady growth of various businesses, AsiaInfo has also seen the important impact of AIGC and large-scale models on the long-term development of its own business, and based on its own insight and strategic layout, it has gradually explored an effective development path in the market road.
How to Grasp the Increment in the AIGC Era
Some people say that all industries are worth reshaping with AI in the era of digital intelligence.
I take it for granted. The powerful capabilities emerging from AIGC will inevitably have a profound impact on the product development, operation management, and sales services of technology companies. GitHub predicts that in the next five years, as many as 80% of the code will come from AI systems. Gartner also predicts that AIGC, which has both large-scale and multi-modal models, is expected to become a new technology platform and continue to shine in various industries.
Therefore, there are three core issues facing technology companies such as AsiaInfo Technology: First, whether it is necessary to enter the field of general-purpose large-scale models and participate in the current fierce market competition for large-scale models; second, how to make the capabilities of large-scale models For my own use, quickly improve the efficiency of my own business, so as to quickly improve market competitiveness; third, how to integrate into the ecology of the large model, empower industry users through large model capabilities, and promote the digital and intelligent transformation of industry users .
"AsiaInfo Technology is a typical engineer-intensive company, and the large-scale model does have a great impact on the future development of a technology company like ours." Gao Nianshu said, "If you don't learn and master the large-scale model, you may soon be rejected disuse."
In Gao Nianshu's view, AsiaInfo has a deep insight and understanding of large-scale models such as AIGC, and focuses on the layout of three aspects:
First of all, AsiaInfo will not enter the field of general-purpose large-scale models, but will join the existing general-purpose large-scale model ecology, and focus on the innovation of enhanced models on the basis of general-purpose large-scale models. As we all know, the research and development of general-purpose large-scale models not only requires huge computing resources and costs, but also requires a strong algorithm team and data engineering team to carry out continuous iteration and optimization, and there are already many large-scale model companies in the market. Choosing to participate in the research and development of general-purpose large-scale models is undoubtedly a reinvention of the wheel, which not only requires a huge investment, but may not be sufficiently competitive.
Obviously, in the current market environment of "100 Model Wars", it is a wise choice for technology companies like AsiaInfo to do something and not do something. "Currently, AsiaInfo Technology has cultivated more than 40 projects related to large models and AIGC." Gao Nianshu revealed, "The application of large models in different vertical industries requires an intermediate layer, and AsiaInfo Technology will focus on this, such as enhanced models. wait."
Secondly, AsiaInfo accelerates internal research and exploration on how to use large-scale model-related capabilities, such as automatic generation of internally developed codes, automatic generation of test cases, copywriting of digital intelligence operations, automatic generation of reports, and data analysis.
Third, using large models as a starting point to accelerate the integration of large models and vertical industries will become an excellent opportunity to promote the digital transformation of vertical industries, which will not only bring about a leap in production efficiency, but also effectively reduce costs. Therefore, a very important direction for AsiaInfo in the future is to combine large models with industry characteristics, and integrate the capabilities of large models into industries such as transportation and energy.
Taking communications as an example, AsiaInfo has tried to integrate business scenarios such as self-intelligent network, intelligent customer service, intelligent operation and maintenance, intelligent billing, and metaverse operation and maintenance into the capabilities of the large model. In addition, the combination of RPA and large-scale models, precision marketing, and customer service systems are also directions that AsiaInfo is actively exploring.
"At this stage, the large model cannot handle affairs independently. We believe that the large model will play the role of the copilot (copilot) for a long time in the future, helping people improve energy efficiency. We will continue to promote the empowerment of the copilot to vertical industries, First of all, we will strive to become an important product and solution provider in the field of AIGC in the communications industry." Gao Nianshu added.
Acumen Research and Consulting predicts that the AIGC market size will reach US$110 billion in 2030, which will have a positive impact on industries such as entertainment, education, finance, medical care, public services, transportation, manufacturing, and communications, and create huge social and economic value. Undoubtedly, AIGC is the biggest increment of our era, and AsiaInfo's insight and layout in the field of large models and AIGC will help it grasp the largest increment in the future market.
Deepen the core industry
IDC's "Global Digital Transformation Spending Guide" predicts that by 2026, China's digital transformation spending is expected to exceed US$600 billion, with a five-year compound growth rate of 17.9%, ranking among the top in the world.
In recent years, with the successive promulgation of policies such as the "Report on the Development of the Digital Economy" and the "Overall Layout Plan for the Construction of Digital China", the digital and intelligent transformation of thousands of industries in China is deepening, and it is transforming into an all-round digital and intelligent transformation advanced stages of evolution.
As the transformation deepens, the difficulty increases, very much like a difficult climb. Users in many industries not only need to face the impact and impact of new technologies such as big data, AIGC, and large models, but also need to adjust and build organizational structures, departmental integration, and digital ecology. More and more industries Users realize that a single product and technological innovation has been difficult to meet more systematic and complex transformation needs.
"The To B industry needs to seek long-term benefits for users in these industries, rather than pursuing short-term interests. It is difficult to deepen and penetrate an industry just by selling a product in the short term, let alone provide users with the value of digital transformation. "Gao Nianshu said.
The digital and intelligent transformation of the industry is like a journey without an end, requiring iterative upgrading of technology and continuous spiral advancement in combination with enterprise business. For this reason, AsiaInfo's idea is to deepen and penetrate the core strategic industries, continue to cultivate products, services and industry knowledge, and realize two-way cooperation with the digital and intelligent transformation of industry users.
First, give full play to AsiaInfo's inherent to B service capabilities. Gao Nianshu believes that AsiaInfo has been in the field of operators for many years and has a natural service gene. When expanding other strategic industries, service capabilities play a key role.
Second, in recent years, we will continue to increase investment in research and development, through continuous investment in research and development to polish products and enhance product competitiveness. In the first half of this year, AsiaInfo's research and development investment reached 505 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%, accounting for 15.4% of revenue. In recent years, AsiaInfo's 5G private network, edge AI, all-in-one machine, database and other products have received excellent market response.
For example, AsiaInfo's AntDB database product aims to achieve an order volume of 100 million this year, and it is also continuously improving in the database ranking of neutral third parties, and its influence is becoming increasingly prominent; another example, AsiaInfo continues to deeply participate in 3GPP, ITU, ETSI and other 20 international/national standards organizations work, forming more than 240 international/domestic standards, etc.
Third, AsiaInfo will continue to build a professional team. With the excellent professional ability of the professional team, combined with its own excellent products, platforms and management capabilities, it will jointly empower the digital and intelligent transformation of industry users.
"We will work intensively in the core industry, and in the future, we will expand into more industries after seeing the situation clearly." Gao Nianshu finally said.