Baidu CEO Robin Li says commercial AI adoption is only starting

China tech Baidu CEO Robin Li says commercial AI adoption is only starting Enterprises in finance and manufacturing rethink workflows as spending climbs Baidu's Tianchi 1024-card "super node," an AI computing system, is displayed at the Baidu World 2026 conference in Beijing on Nov. 12. (Photo by Wataru Suzuki) WATARU SUZUKI November 12, 2026 17:45 JST BEIJING -- The founder of Chinese technology group Baidu on Thursday said the commercial adoption of artificial intelligence is "only starting," calling for greater use of Al agents despite concerns over ballooning token budgets and the technology's impact on unemployment. Read Next Artificial intelligence Tencent says its Hy4 joins 'top-tier' of open-source AI models Electric vehicles Baidu-backed DeepWay aims to license its e-truck tech in Europe Equities Baidu's Hong Kong listing upgrade opens path to mainland capital Trading Asia Binance hack clouds Singapore crypto push for tokenized stocks Artificial intelligence China's DeepSeek debuts improved low-cost AI as tech doubts swirl Artificial intelligence DeepSeek, other China AI firms have just 10% the revenue of OpenAI, Anthropic Equities Chinese 'king' of African phone market Transsion sinks in Hong Kong listing Latest on China tech China tech China's exoskeleton robots muscle into the consumer mainstream China tech Huawei licenses key Wi-Fi tech to HP ahead of Trump-Xi meeting China tech TikTok agrees to $400m US children's privacy settlement Sponsored Content About Sponsored Content This content was commissioned by Nikkei's Global Business Bureau.