China has the potential to add one full year to the national average life expectancy within the next five years, potentially ushering the country into an 80-year longevity era, according to Zhang Ligang, founder and CEO of iKang Healthcare Group. Speaking at the 2026 Yabuli Forum Summer Annual Meeting held in Chengdu from September 4 to 6, Zhang argued that this ambitious goal could be reached by using artificial intelligence to shift the country's medical focus away from clinical treatment and toward preventive care.

Zhang pointed to a national five-year plan targeting an average lifespan exceeding 80 years, stating that he believes this target is entirely achievable. He cited the city of Suzhou as a prime example, noting that its population of roughly 8 million already enjoys an average life expectancy of over 85 years—a figure that surpasses longevity leaders like Japan and Switzerland.

To realize this vision, Zhang emphasized that the healthcare system must undergo a fundamental transformation from a "clinically-centered" model to one focused on "health and prevention." He criticized the traditional reactive approach—often described as "treating the head when the head hurts, and the foot when the foot hurts"—as financially unsustainable, while highlighting AI's immense potential to deliver value within preventive medicine.

The founder acknowledged that in the past, most people who completed physical examinations tended to disregard abnormal indicators unless they were experiencing acute symptoms or significant discomfort. However, with the advent of AI, deep data analysis, assessment, and predictive capabilities can dramatically enhance the precision of health management.

Zhang stressed that AI has already proven invaluable in early cancer screening, with the widespread adoption of lung CT examinations enabling AI technology to identify a large number of early-stage lung cancer positive indicators. Furthermore, he noted that AI holds substantial untapped potential in the field of cardiovascular management. Through proactive AI-driven intervention, he argued that significantly reducing cardiac mortality rates is entirely possible—and since this area of health management remains largely uncharted territory, the opportunities for AI innovation are vast.