In fact, for Baidu, such speculation is not unreasonable.
Since last year, Baidu and communication enterprises have reached important cooperation in succession: Xiaomi and Baidu announced strategic cooperation at xiaomi’s first IOT Developer Conference to jointly build an integrated “IOT +AI” ecosystem; At the end of the year, Huawei and Baidu reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation covering technology, products and content. Baidu DuerOS has also cooperated with Qualcomm, a world-renowned radio communication technology research and development company, to jointly optimize DuerOS mobile AI solution on Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform, and jointly released DuerOS smart chip with Unigroup, ARM and Shanghai Hanfeng. Up to now, DuerOS has cooperated with huawei, ARM, TCL, Haier, Midea, Harman, Xiaogenius and many other well-known enterprises, including Vivo and Xiaomi. The dialogue ability of DuerOS has been implemented in many hardware carriers and practical scenarios.
“The penetration of AI capabilities into terminals will fundamentally change the current human-computer interaction model and usher in a whole new era of user mobile experience,” Robin Li wrote in an internal letter sent to baidu employees when the company released its Q4 2017 and full-year financial results.
In front of numerous communication enterprises and Baidu AI cooperation examples, ZTE and Baidu AI “gossip” can be understood. The telecommunications and mobile phone industries are facing a new critical juncture of major technological transformation. Artificial intelligence, smart Internet and 5G are all competing against time and ecological strategies. Embracing Internet giants whose AI capabilities are already well established is a cost-effective option. However, communication enterprises and Baidu AI are becoming increasingly closely linked, many communication terminals to seek industrial upgrading with AI and choose to cooperate with Baidu although it is reasonable, but the domestic Internet giant deep cultivation of AI is not baidu alone, why let Baidu enjoy its success? At the end of the day, baidu AI has a lot to offer telecom companies, even beyond its role as a domestic AI technology leader.
First, in the long run, Baidu AI has infinite potential in the future reconstruction of terminals
In fact, IN the first half of 2017, AI was not so eye-catching, when many emerging economic models came with opportunities, and topics such as sharing economy once became the top hot topic. But gradually, scientific and technological achievements that took time to study and polish began to surface, and AI, blockchain and other time-dependent industries, low-key and stable, gradually occupy an unassailable position in the commercial society. Baidu’s AI came into being during this period, with the launch of Apollo, a driverless car, and the widespread use of DuerOS, a conversational AI system. In the field of communication, Baidu’s conversational ARTIFICIAL intelligence system DuerOS has become the first choice of intelligent interactive systems for domestic mobile phone manufacturers, and the potential of Baidu AI has been gradually released.
For this reason, although AI is a tuyere, not many people can successfully take the ride, and the high threshold of AI’s technological property prevents most people from getting in. For Baidu, its potential comes from this: on the one hand, the massive user data baidu accumulated in the early search field can serve as an important reference for AI research and development direction; On the other hand, the talent reserve plan made early has become the basic strength of Baidu AI never rains but pours. Not to mention the need for funding to develop AI technology is enough to screen out a large number of people.
Therefore, in these data and human resource value release is not complete at present, Baidu AI still has the potential of secondary growth, embrace Baidu AI has become a forward-looking strategic deployment of communication enterprises.
Second, from the point of view of the moment, Baidu business plate preference degree first, after the AI ecosystem
The professional level and level of AI technology research and development of Baidu is at the forefront in China. In 2017, Baidu put forward “AIl in AI”, which officially adjusted the strategic direction of the enterprise, and started to lay out AI as a priority. The overall business sector has been reiterated again, and AI has become the core driving force of Baidu. Later, Baidu’s focus gradually shifted with the deepening of AI technology until AI was fully penetrated and a complete AI ecosystem was built. There are not only DuerOS, an intelligent voice system, but also Baidu Maps, self-driving cars…
Baidu reported revenue of 23.6 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2017, up 29 percent year on year, of which mobile revenue accounted for 76 percent. In addition to the overall growth, the effects of AI empowering search, information flow and Baidu apps are also significant: in the fourth quarter, the daily distribution volume of Baidu’s information flow business increased by more than 20% quarter-on-quarter, and the total time spent by Baidu App users increased by about 30% year-on-year. This shows baidu AI in its business map of the powerful enabling ability.
In this context, the former has the advantage of highly tilted AI resources, while the latter has the powerful push from Baidu AI ecology. Communication enterprises seek to cooperate with Baidu AI, and what they get is not only the unilateral software system support of DuerOS, but also the potential enabling power of the whole Baidu AI ecology.
Third, from the trend, Baidu AI helps subversive improvement and innovation, and brand influence catalyzes siphon effect
Nowadays, DuerOS has been widely used in various fields, including TVS, speakers and smart phones. It has been widely used in smart home, wearable devices and vehicular scenarios, with numerous partners and significant practical application results. Baidu DuerOS has more than 130 partners and has jointly released more than 50 smart products equipped with DuerOS. As of the beginning of this year, it has activated more than 50 million smart devices and has more than 10 million monthly active devices. As a pioneer of AI technology in China, Baidu has become one of the most active AI players in China.
Communication enterprises need to balance baidu and other enterprises. On the one hand, Baidu’s strong technical strength and brand influence are often not equal on the other hand. In this emerging industry chain, the siphon effect is more obvious, and Baidu is bound to attract more and more partners under the strong brand influence. With the practice and application experience of Baidu AI in a variety of carriers, Baidu AI as an enabler of communication enterprises will be the general trend.
In general, nowadays users begin to pursue more intelligent, faster and more convenient human-computer interaction in terms of communication requirements. AI voice assistant is the cornerstone of smooth and fast human-computer interaction. Communication enterprises urgently need AI to empower their own products, transformation and upgrading.
Therefore, baidu DuerOS and Baidu Map appeared together in MWC, and it is not groundless speculation that ZTE and Baidu will join hands. Although Baidu and ZTE do not say whether or not to cooperate with each other, it seems to be a matter of time for major mobile phone brands to carry Baidu AI intelligent system.
AI mobile phones have become the general trend, and Baidu AI has become a booster for communication enterprises to lead the new revolution of smart phones
In fact, IDC’s report that global smartphone shipments fell for the first time last year suggests that hardware and software will struggle to keep pace in the future. Today’s hardware manufacturing industry has encountered a development bottleneck, and the demands of software application services are still rising rapidly. From informatization to data and then to intelligence, AI mobile phones will become the general trend of the development of the smart phone industry.
Driven by the transformation of this huge industry, Baidu AI is bound to enter the fast lane of development. As an important medium of human-computer interaction, AI voice assistant will be particularly valued for its ability to connect hardware, which has more potential openings.
For communication enterprises, on the one hand, smart phones in the era of traditional information and data are facing the dilemma of transformation, while the deficiencies in software system research and development and AI technology can be made up by Baidu AI. For the whole mobile phone industry, the future core competitiveness lies in this. Only with the help of a strong enough springboard, communication enterprises can completely overturn the industrial model, open the door of transformation, and step into the era of AI empowerment.
On the other hand, facing the new opportunity of AI mobile phone, communication enterprises can rely on Baidu AI to seize the opportunity, get rid of the state of weak homogenous competition, and achieve product breakthrough and surpass under the complete and mature Baidu AI ecosystem. More and more smartphone brands use Baidu AI to create more possibilities and extend the boundaries of software delivery system business.
Although there are still many unknowns in the collision between the two sides, it is conceivable that under the leadership of AI leading enterprises such as Baidu, AI will fully penetrate the smartphone industry that day is not far away.
In general, the reason why communication enterprises are embracing Baidu AI one after another is that they see not only the cutting-edge AI technology strength, but also baidu’s future enabling potential and the explosion of ecological power. At present, the application of Baidu AI technology is becoming more and more common. Under the catalysis of siphon effect, Baidu AI will certainly promote communication enterprises to lead a new round of AI revolution tide of smart phones.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110