Zhejiang Yaohu Automotive Parts Co., Ltd. has partnered with Hangzhou-based Linghe Digital Technology Co., Ltd. to host an AI digital employee launch event and AI Refiner Competition in Wenzhou, marking the next phase of their artificial intelligence implementation. This collaboration targets key operational areas including procurement, quality assurance, and research and development, with applications ranging from supplier discovery and quotation organization to inspection plan creation.

Unlike conventional AI usage focused solely on question-answering or content generation, this initiative aims to embed AI directly into specific job functions and workflow processes, enabling it to assist employees with their daily responsibilities. To date, Zhejiang Yaohu has deployed multiple AI agents across various business divisions, with some already operational and others still undergoing testing and validation. Linghe Digital, established in 2024 as a manufacturing-focused AI digital employee platform provider, is supplying the underlying technology and services for this project.

The company reports that its AI adoption has evolved from initial trials in a few departments to broader implementation spanning procurement, quality assurance, sales, research and development, and human resources. From a corporate perspective, the primary objective is cost reduction and operational efficiency, as stated by Chi Ruiwei, Chairman and President of Zhejiang Yaohu, during the launch ceremony. Previously, expanding business volume typically required proportional increases in workforce, but AI now enables the delegation of repetitive tasks such as text compilation, data processing, and format conversion.

Chi emphasized that for manufacturing enterprises, the critical metric is not merely the quantity of AI tools deployed, but rather the tangible problems they solve. Hua Luke, Chief Commercial Officer at Linghe Digital, illustrated this point with an example: some employees use AI to expand 200 characters into 20,000, only for their managers to use AI to condense it back to 200 characters—a cycle that generates no added value. As AI becomes integrated into specific roles, human workers will need to take on more responsibility for judgment, filtering, and quality control. While AI can handle certain work units, the decisions about how to use it and how to evaluate its outputs remain fundamentally human tasks.

Going forward, both companies plan to monitor the deployed agents for usability, sustained adoption, and actual performance metrics before deciding which applications warrant wider rollout. For manufacturing firms, the ultimate benchmark for AI success is not just technical capability, but whether the technology can be genuinely integrated into business operations and consistently deliver measurable value.