Editor's note: Matteo Giovannini is a finance professional at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Beijing and a member of the China Task Force at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. The article reflects the author's views, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

China's evolution as a world-class technology hub has considerably raised the level of importance of artificial intelligence (AI) that has rapidly become a multi-billion dollar industry and is now embraced by companies in almost every sector that see in its adoption an opportunity for increasing productivity and for reducing the time to perform tasks. 

The country's strength basically relies on an ambitious strategic plan to build the world's largest ecosystem in AI that combines a huge amount of data available, a well-developed technological infrastructure that includes date centers and 5G network, a large number of unicorn companies and start-ups, generous investments in research and development and the availability of capitals provided by venture capital firms.

In this regard, the recent fast development of AI could have never been achieved simply by private companies' initiative and investments, but it is the result of a much broader national strategic framework that can be reconducted to the State Council's decision in July 2017 to release a policy aimed at building a domestic AI industry worth $150 billion and at becoming the world's leading AI power by 2030.

This week, it has been widely reported that China's retail services platform Meituan Dianping officially opened on October 14th its first AI-powered Mai shop, the unmanned retail store, in the Shougang business pilot zone in the Beijing suburbs. This gives customers the opportunity to experience a new unmanned delivery retail concept through which it is possible to buy goods directly through a QR code or using Meituan's app within a restricted geographic zone around the store.

The launch of the first AI smart store represents another important accomplishment for the Tencent-backed platform that enhances the positive outcome received from the previously launched AI-powered "Super Brain," a system used for food delivery services that is able to handle very complex real-world issues, rapidly take decisions and provide precise predictions.

By integrating warehouse management, supply and distribution, Meituan is finally able to control every step of the retail value chain, removing any possible bottleneck that could arise during the whole process, and to provide a concrete demonstration of what Alibaba's Jack Ma defined few years ago as the New Retail vision by removing boundaries between the brick-and-mortar stores and the virtual e-commerce platform.

It is interesting to notice that Meituan, in order to achieve maximum efficiency, precision in analytics use, and to better serve customers through automated guided vehicles (AGV), has introduced a separation into geographic zones according to stores' location that enables the company's software to make better decisions by leveraging the vast amount of data such as time, location, weather, and traffic condition.

Furthermore, the combination of AGV, geographical mapping of inventories and shops, and AI-powered "Super Brain" contributes to providing a strategic solution to the last mile, the short segment between origin and destination of the products, which represents one of the major challenges in e-commerce due to the high costs associated.

The new AI-powered Mai shop is expected to overcome the traditional negative points of the retail industry, such as a poor and standardized service, with a fast and dedicated service that will improve the shopping experience, reduce complaints, and lead to positive consequences in terms of brand loyalty, reputation, and customer retention.

The unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19 has also contributed to accelerating the need for a major involvement of technology in people's daily life and raised the attention for newer and safer ways to deliver goods through the utilization of unmanned vehicles. These can disinfect, distribute, and patrol, and can replace human labor in situations where the risk of contact and contamination is higher.

In this sense, the AI-powered retail service represents a valid integration of physical delivery, due to the reduced labor force available during the pandemic and to the exponential growth of online orders, leading in perspective to a different job market through the conversion of human labor into less risky and more value-added activities such as supervisors or maintenance technicians of the automated guided vehicles (AGV). 

In conclusion, Meituan's launch of the first AI shop represents a major achievement for the company, which makes a strategically important step in modernizing the entire retail sector while achieving a more efficient cost structure.

For China, this achievement is a continuation of its unstoppable route to becoming the global leader in AI within this decade, and for customers, this move guarantees that they are now able to receive almost everything they want at their doorstep through a personalized shopping experience.

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