(Yicai) Feb. 28 -- As new technological advancements emerge, traditional industries need to keep up with new trends, the chairman of Chinese hog breeding giant New Hope Group said at a press briefing before the kick-off of the Two Sessions, China's key policy setting meetings.

Even though traditional industries remain the pillar of the national economy, they must transform and embark on a journey to develop new quality productive forces, Liu Yonghao, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said yesterday.

The Two Sessions are the annual plenary meetings of the National People's Congress and the CPPCC, which are China’s top legislative and political advisory bodies, respectively. This year's Two Sessions will kick off on March 4.

Liu gave New Hope as an example. The company, a representative of traditional industries, is exploring the application of artificial intelligence technologies, he noted.

New Hope's headquarters connected some of its businesses to DeepSeek's AI model DeepSeek-R1 to improve its refined management capability and operational efficiency, Liu explained. Moreover, the company invested in several robotics firms to explore the application scenarios of robots in its daily business.

Regarding New Hope's attempts to use new technologies, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Li Jianxiong told Yicai that the company hopes AI can be effectively applied in the feed formula creation, breeding gene testing, cold chain logistics management, and animal disease prevention and control fields, as well as to accurately predict pig market cycles, to improve its operations.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione