Chinese Companies' AI Adoption and Hiring Boom - Charts of the Week
Key Trends from Job Posting Data
“Charts of the Week” is Baiguan’s series that features key data points to help you quickly grasp the general state of affairs in China in just a few minutes. We handpick the highlights of the data charts from a variety of sources, analyzing and delivering insights trusted by 100+ top institutional and corporate clients worldwide at BigOne Lab. Don’t forget to subscribe before you continue reading!
Two years after ChatGPT went viral worldwide, AI investment and capex have become a major focus for big money. But how are enterprises actually integrating AI technology?
Frequently asked questions among global investors include whether enterprises are adopting AI, pursuing more downstream AI application initiatives, and to what extent AI has impacted human labor. These are important yet complex questions that are hard to answer in one sitting (and for the last one, it may still be too early to tell). But in today’s newsletter, I want to take a first step in exploring these questions by examining Chinese companies’ hiring demand for AI-related roles.
In this week’s analysis, I looked at job posting data across major online recruitment platforms in China, and all indicators point to a key ongoing trend: demand for AI-related talent is decoupling from the overall tepid job market. The number of job postings for AI-related roles has outpaced the broader market since the second half of 2023 — and has accelerated again in 2025. Despite macroeconomic headwinds, Chinese companies’ investments in AI remain firm, strategic, and are accelerating significantly.
More importantly, companies hiring for AI talent have expanded beyond technology into finance, manufacturing, industrials, and even traditional sectors such as agriculture. This is no longer just hype — it’s a signal that the real economy has begun to strategically plan and deploy AI.
*Please note that the job postings data used in today’s analysis may be biased toward white-collar & knowledge-worker jobs, as many blue-collar positions are often filled outside online recruitment platforms.
Industry Penetration: Who’s Leading the Race?
The AI wave is sweeping across all industries — but at very different speeds.
Unsurprisingly, the software and IT services sector shows the highest penetration of AI-related positions.
Despite lower overall penetration, most other industries have also shown a steady increase in AI hiring over the past five years — especially in 2025.
The charts below show the share of AI-related roles out of total job postings for each industry in September of 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively:
But when it comes to growth momentum, the real story lies in other industries. In Q3 2025:
Behind the paywall, I provide more on industry-level trends, along with case studies and comparisons of hiring demand for some key enterprises. To get a sense of what is offered, you are welcome to check out this older post in the same series: Charts of the Week. You can also get free access by sharing us.