Introduction

On May 8, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly released the series of national standards titled “Artificial Intelligence Terminal Intelligence Level Classification” (GB/Z 177—2026). These standards specify the requirements for various products, including smartphones, computers, televisions, glasses, car cockpits, speakers, and headphones.

Experts believe that these standards clearly define the intelligence levels of AI terminals, laying a solid foundation for building a safe, orderly, and efficient ecosystem for AI terminals. This will also promote the coordinated development of China’s AI terminal industry, achieving scale advantages and leading standards.

Diverse Product Forms

AI terminals are key carriers for the large-scale implementation and systematic development of AI technology. In recent years, China’s AI industry has flourished, with AI terminals continuously giving rise to new products, business models, and experiences driven by diverse intelligent scenarios. This has effectively stimulated consumer enthusiasm, becoming an important lever for tapping into domestic demand and optimizing consumption structure.

Since the beginning of this year, driven by policies promoting the replacement of old consumer goods and the deep integration of AI technology with consumer products, AI terminals have gained popularity among consumers. Data shows that in the first quarter, China’s smartphone production reached 298 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%; service robot production exceeded 4.4 million units, a year-on-year increase of 2.6%.

Wei Ran, Chief Engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, explained that AI terminals are a new generation of intelligent terminals driven by large models. Compared to traditional terminals, they have four major functional upgrades: the ability to actively perceive scenarios and accurately understand user intentions; multimodal interaction capabilities including text, voice, and audio-video; support for large model generative applications and intelligent agent services; and the ability to achieve autonomous learning and continuous evolution based on personal large models and knowledge bases.

“Overall, intelligent terminals have upgraded from traditional passive execution tools to intelligent assistants that can perceive, understand, serve, and grow, redefining human-computer interaction. These features are core points of examination for the highest-level terminals in the new intelligence classification national standards,” Wei said.

Currently, AI terminals are flourishing, showcasing a parallel evolution of traditional terminal upgrades, emerging terminal expansions, and future terminal explorations. Traditional terminals have first upgraded to AI terminals, with shipments of AI smartphones, computers, and tablets surpassing ten million units, becoming the current market leaders. Emerging categories such as intelligent in-car terminals, smart glasses, and intelligent toys are rapidly growing, while native terminal forms represented by embodied intelligence continue to explore, further accelerating the application of AI.

Wei analyzed that the systematic integration of AI and terminal technology requires breakthroughs in three major directions: optimizing the end-cloud collaborative architecture, where the cloud handles high-complexity tasks and the end processes high-frequency real-time interaction tasks; deepening the full-stack upgrade of hardware and software, strengthening core capabilities of computation, storage, and perception on the hardware side, while promoting AI capabilities from the application layer to the operating system layer on the software side; and upgrading the security and privacy protection system to solidify data security and privacy protection barriers on the terminal side, ensuring that terminal services are trustworthy and controllable throughout.

Clear Evaluation System

Since 2023, leading enterprises in the smartphone and computer industry chain have actively launched AI terminal-related products, each focusing on different functional implementations. The absence of definitions and classification standards for AI terminals has made it difficult for consumers to accurately assess the intelligence levels of different products, complicating product development and market positioning for enterprises. The industry lacks a unified consensus on terminal intelligence classification, leading to generalized misuse of concepts, with some products falling into parameter stacking and a disconnect between functional promotion and actual experience.

The series of national standards for “Artificial Intelligence Terminal Intelligence Level Classification” adopts a “2+N” framework. The “2” refers to “Part 1: Reference Framework” and “Part 2: General Requirements.” These two standards clarify the concept of intelligence, level classification, and testing methods, serving as the foundation for all category standards. The intelligence classification system ranges from L1 response level, L2 tool level, L3 assistant level to L4 collaborative level, with intelligence levels increasing sequentially. The L4 collaborative level will be further clarified and improved in subsequent revisions based on industry development levels. The “N” refers to specific standards for different products such as smartphones, computers, televisions, glasses, car cockpits, speakers, and headphones. The first batch of standards includes seven categories, with plans to advance the development of standards for other categories in the future.

Li Hongwei, Chief Engineer of the China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute, stated that the biggest highlight of this series of standards is its scenario-based, quantifiable approach that considers both end and cloud, covering scenarios such as office work, learning, and design. This provides a unified “health check standard” for AI terminals, standardizing industry development while allowing consumers to clearly select and confidently use products.

The series of standards provides the industry with a scientific and unified evaluation system, offering key support for the large-scale application and intelligent classification management of AI terminal products in China. This helps regulate market order and enhance user experience. Additionally, it can accelerate the innovation and iterative upgrading of AI terminal technology products, accurately guiding technological research and development directions, and ensuring the healthy and sustainable development of the industry. Furthermore, the introduction of these standards will enhance China’s voice in the global arena of AI terminal industry standard-setting, lowering technical barriers for enterprises going abroad and improving international competitiveness.

“On one hand, the standards provide enterprises with directions for improvement to meet benchmarks, facilitating the supply of high-end products, enhancing resource utilization efficiency, and promoting orderly competition and healthy development; on the other hand, they provide consumers with technical and evaluation bases, ensuring that demand-side has standards to rely on for better selection of intelligent products, thus enhancing user experience and satisfaction,” said Yu Xiuming, Deputy Director of the China Electronic Technology Standardization Research Institute.

Accelerating Technological Inclusivity

Lenovo Group participated in the preparation of these standards. Currently, AI PCs account for over 30% of Lenovo’s PC shipments. Its built-in personal super intelligent agent, Tianxi AI, is progressing towards becoming a “personal super-powered partner” for users. Abulikemu, Vice President of Lenovo Group, stated that Lenovo will actively implement national standards, continuously innovating terminal products around Tianxi AI, refining terminal innovative application scenarios and user experiences, and driving collaborative innovation among upstream and downstream partners in the industry chain to promote the high-quality development of the AI terminal industry and accelerate the inclusivity of AI terminals.

To promote the innovative development of the AI terminal industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will strengthen the implementation of standards, conduct standard interpretations and specialized training, establish a compliance testing platform for standards, encourage leading enterprises to take the lead in trials, and create demonstration cases and benchmark products for standard applications. They will accelerate the iteration of the standard system, optimize and improve standard content, continuously expand the coverage of standards, and speed up the construction of a unified standard system that includes various terminal forms. They aim to stimulate consumer leading effects, effectively implement standards in this year’s consumer goods replacement policy, and accelerate the formation of a catalog of AI terminal products to guide public consumption decisions, expanding the breadth and depth of AI applications and creating popular consumption scenarios.

Yu Xiuming mentioned that they will continue to enrich standard categories, developing more standards for wearable devices, home appliances, and trendy toys, ensuring that various terminals have clear intelligence classification standards. This will provide standard and technical support for the implementation of national policies and offer standard consulting and product testing services to society, contributing to the high-quality development of the industry.