Chinese companies could start making money from AI agents next year, UBS says
News Summary
UBS expects Chinese companies to start monetizing their artificial intelligence (AI) agents as early as next year, specifically by 2026. Sundeep Gantori, an equity strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management CIO, stated that as advanced models like DeepSeek’s R2 become more sophisticated, more monetization is anticipated. AI agents are widely considered the next evolutionary stage of generative AI, with major tech companies like Google and OpenAI actively competing in this space. The U.S. market for AI agents currently generates an estimated US$15 billion to US$20 billion in annual revenue, driven by businesses' willingness to adopt advanced software and the sophistication of available AI models. In contrast, Chinese businesses are less accustomed to paying monthly subscriptions for enterprise software, and AI agents have primarily focused on the consumer side. UBS suggests that current monetization in China is limited due to less sophisticated models, but this could change next year as the country's large language models advance.
Background
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are software systems that leverage AI to autonomously plan and perform complex tasks, representing the next evolutionary stage of generative AI. Global tech giants such as Google, OpenAI, and DeepL are actively competing in this space, aiming to offer solutions for coding, wealth management, and other automation needs. The U.S. AI agent market has already demonstrated strong commercialization potential, generating US$15 billion to US$20 billion in annual revenue. This success is attributed to established enterprise software consumption habits and highly sophisticated AI models. In contrast, the Chinese market has lower adoption of enterprise software subscription models, and AI agent applications currently focus more on consumer-centric areas like shopping and entertainment.
In-Depth AI Insights
What are the deeper drivers and potential challenges behind the optimistic forecast for Chinese AI agents to achieve monetization by 2026? The monetization of China's AI agent market is not merely a natural progression of technological maturity but also a reflection of national strategy and differentiated market competition. - Technology Drive and the LLM Race: China's continuous investment and rapid progress in Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly models like DeepSeek R2, are central to enabling complex task capabilities for agents. This signifies China's determination to catch up and even partially surpass Western nations in foundational AI technology, aiming to reduce reliance on external technologies through a