The era of AI Agents is accelerating, with listed companies actively making strategic moves

“Future AI agents may surpass humans, and humans will live in a world with hundreds of millions or even billions of AI agents,” predicted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an interview this July. A report from Bank of America also pointed out that AI evolution is on the eve of the third wave—Agentic AI is about to arrive.

In the second half of this year, AI Agents have become a hot topic, attracting major tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, Google, and OpenAI to invest heavily in this field. In the domestic market, large model vendors, internet companies, and listed corporations are actively deploying AI Agents.

As more companies develop AI Agent products and ecosystems, industry insiders expect 2025 to be the year of explosive growth for AI Agents. Galaxy Securities predicts that by 2028, China’s AI Agent market size will surge to 852 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 72.7%.

Companies Enter the AI Agent Competition

An AI Agent, also called an “AI intelligent entity,” is a system driven by large language models that possesses autonomous understanding, perception, planning, memory, and tool usage capabilities, enabling the automation of complex tasks. Unlike traditional AI, AI Agents can think independently and call upon tools to gradually achieve given goals.

For example, if a user wants to go out for dinner, a large language model can suggest restaurant locations and related information. An AI Agent not only provides restaurant recommendations but can also search based on the user’s budget, execute reservations, add the trip to a calendar, and send reminders.

Since the second half of this year, AI Agents have gained significant attention, with tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic announcing related developments.

In June, Apple showcased its latest AI achievement, Apple Intelligence, at the developer conference. In November, Microsoft released over ten commercial AI Agents at “Microsoft Ignite 2024.” Google followed suit, announcing full promotion of commercial AI Agents, launching a series of incentive activities and products, and releasing one of the few global markets for commercial AI Agents. OpenAI plans to launch a new AI Agent product codenamed “Operator” in January 2025.

In the domestic market, companies like Zhipu have also focused on AI Agents, and a competition centered around “AI Agents” is quietly underway.

On October 25, Zhipu released AutoGLM Intelligent Agent, capable of understanding user intent through voice commands, simulating human behavior, and automatically completing tasks like ordering takeout, booking flights, and hotels. On November 29, Zhipu launched an upgraded version supporting autonomous execution of tasks with over 50 steps and flexible app switching during task execution.

Zhipu believes that large AI models are shifting from Chat to Act, and in the future, a unified AI intelligent entity will operate various hardware devices to improve human-computer interaction efficiency. As computing power increases, models and terminal-cloud collaboration architectures compatible with native AI devices will gradually emerge, with smart devices like smartphones, PCs, cars, glasses, and home appliances rapidly proliferating.

Besides Zhipu, companies like ByteDance, Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba are also deploying AI Agents, including ByteDance’s Coze Agent platform, Baidu’s Qianfan AgentBuilder development tool, and Kunlun Wanyuan’s SkyAgents.

Multiple Listed Companies Deploy AI Agents

As domestic companies compete in AI Agents, several A-share listed companies are also actively involved.

For example, iFlytek has launched AI assistants targeting education, healthcare, judiciary, and government services. Jincai Hulian’s “XinZhiYue Financial and Tax Large Model” adopts an open architecture, combining the company’s financial and tax products with an open platform to build a financial and tax AI Agent.

Zhongke Jincai’s AI Agent development and operation platform offers functions like agent creation, multi-base model invocation, and workflow definition, capable of automatically routing to the most suitable large model based on industry scenarios and completing agent creation. The company states that Zhongke Jincai’s AI Agent can understand multiple intents, automatically perform multi-tasking based on user commands or context, learn user preferences, and provide personalized services, enabling highly human-like natural language interactions across the entire process.

Xinguodu’s subsidiary, Shanghai Shierqu, is dedicated to developing general-purpose AI Agent technology and conducting research on multimodal AI products.

Xinkai Pu launched a campus life AI product called “Xiaomei Tongxue” in October, based on Pangu and Tongyi Qianwen large models.

On December 9, Techsoft (Zhongke Chuangda) responded to investor inquiries about AI Agent deployment, stating that the company has been advancing products and technologies in this area. For example, their Rubik Avatar integrates multiple AI technologies, including machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, based on edge intelligence and naked-eye 3D technology, utilizing Qualcomm’s high-performance chips and real-time 3D rendering with Zhongke Chuangda’s Kanzi engine.

Nanxing Shares recently replied to investor questions, indicating that their subsidiary, Yixian Network, leverages cutting-edge large AI models and collaborates deeply with leading AI companies like Microsoft to provide efficient, intelligent AIGC applications and solutions. Their “Xiaolu” is an AI assistant supporting smart chat and knowledge base Q&A.

Cute Intelligence responded to investor questions on December 17, stating that their Cute AI Agents 2.0 aims to become a universal digital intelligence tool and assistant to help traditional enterprises upgrade digitally. The 2.0 version is currently under development.

2025 Could See a Commercial Explosion of AI Agents

Industry experts generally believe that 2025 will be the year of AI Agent explosion.

Shanxi Securities’ report indicates that Agents are expected to be widely deployed in 2025, driving increased demand for computing power and further expanding AI infrastructure investments.

Debon Securities also predicts that by 2025, AI Agents may experience a breakout, leading to a qualitative leap in the terminal market. As the Agent network gradually takes shape, increased market penetration will create a solid business model loop within the AI ecosystem.

“Currently, tech giants like Apple, Google, and OpenAI regard Agents as a key focus for 2025. That year could become the year of Agent explosion, further promoting AI application deployment,” said Zhong Jian-shu, an analyst at Changjiang Securities.

Wondershare’s government and enterprise business leader Tang Fangxin believes that AI Agent development is transitioning from “experimentation” to “application,” though not yet mature. With continuous improvements in computing power, machine learning, and natural language processing, AI Agents are increasingly capable of understanding user intent, providing personalized services, and executing complex tasks. They are already applied in customer service, smart homes, and personal assistants, and are expanding into more industries and scenarios.

Tang predicts that AI Agents will continue to evolve, gradually moving from “usable” to “easy to use.” For example, Wondershare’s interactive digital human business can significantly address scenarios like exhibition explanations, smart demonstrations, speeches, and corporate receptions, using AI digital humans to introduce services and enhance visitor experience.

However, Tang emphasizes that deploying AI Agents involves extensive collection and processing of user data, raising critical privacy and security concerns such as data misuse and leaks. AI Agents rely on local computing power and large models, requiring high levels of technical maturity, integration, implementation, and operational support. Currently, the focus should be on expanding from single scenarios to interconnected ones, accumulating mature pathways and solutions, while strengthening security and privacy regulation, and exploring openly.

“From ‘training’ to ‘inference,’ AI intelligent agents will be an essential step toward the era of artificial general intelligence,” said Galaxy Securities. As large models rapidly iterate and upgrade, AI intelligent agents based on these models are entering a phase of rapid development. Their rise is reshaping the AI industry chain and creating new investment opportunities. By 2028, China’s AI agent market size is expected to surge to 852 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 72.7%. The AI intelligent agent industry chain is a diverse and highly collaborative ecosystem with vast future market potential.