Baidu CEO Robin Li pivots to AI agents, unveils Daily Active Agents metric
Predicts 10 billion global DAAs and launches DuMate and Miaoda 3.0.
Baidu CEO Robin Li declared a major strategic pivot at the Create 2026 conference on May 14, shifting focus from large language models to AI agents. He introduced 'Daily Active Agents (DAA)' as the new key metric for the AI era, predicting the rise of over 10 billion global DAAs empowering 'super individuals.' Li unveiled two flagship products: DuMate, a personal AI agent assistant, and Miaoda 3.0, a development platform for building and deploying agents. The announcement underscores Baidu's bet that autonomous, task-oriented agents—rather than raw model size—will drive the next wave of AI adoption.
Li emphasized that agents, not models, will unlock practical value for users and enterprises. By framing success around daily active agents (similar to DAU for apps), Baidu aims to measure real-world utility. DuMate integrates with Baidu's ecosystem to handle scheduling, research, and automation, while Miaoda 3.0 lowers the barrier for developers to create custom agents. The move positions Baidu alongside other tech giants racing to dominate the agent layer, signaling a definitive industry shift from 'bigger models' to 'smarter, more autonomous tools.'
- Baidu CEO Robin Li announced a corporate shift from large language models to AI agents at the Create 2026 conference.
- Introduced Daily Active Agents (DAA) as a new success metric, forecasting over 10 billion global DAAs.
- Launched DuMate (personal agent assistant) and Miaoda 3.0 (agent development platform) to enable 'super individuals.'
Why It Matters
Baidu's agent-first strategy may redefine AI benchmarks, prioritizing practical, autonomous tools over raw model performance.