China's small firms embrace AI faster than large enterprises

At the inaugural Nusa Dua Forum in Bali, organized by the South China Morning Post and Indonesian sovereign wealth fund Danantara Indonesia, industry leaders discussed the AI economy and digital transformation. A key insight came from Zhou Yuxiang, founder and CEO of Black Lake Technologies, an industrial software firm based in Shanghai. He revealed that his company has pivoted from serving large corporations to focusing on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and family-owned businesses.

Zhou observed that mom-and-pop shops are more willing to deploy agentic technology—AI systems that can autonomously perform tasks—compared to larger firms, which often get bogged down by risk officers and extended deliberation. Black Lake Technologies develops cloud-based solutions to digitize factory operations and helps small businesses measure the ROI of using an AI agent versus a human worker. The forum also highlighted that market agility, stable power supplies, and efficient data exchanges are critical factors for gaining a competitive edge in the AI sector.