(Yicai Global) Sept. 18 -- Xiaomi will fully exploit its advantages to get ahead in artificial intelligence technology through AI+IOT, Lei Jun, China's leading internet entrepreneur and founder of Beijing-based Xiaomi, said yesterday in a speech to the World Artificial Intelligence Conference that opened in Shanghai yesterday.

Xiaomi's advantages include a huge user base, masses of devices and users, and most importantly, and understanding of the AI era, Lei told attendees of the three-day event.

Xiaomi had connected to 115 million consumer IOT devices by the end of the second quarter.

Xiaomi's IOT platform was then connected to over 85 million devices of more than 800 types, over 10 million of which were active daily units, and Xiaomi has become the world's largest intelligent hardware IOT platform, Lei told the Xiaomi IOT Developer Conference last year.

5G technology is the communication method for the IOT era and the IOT sector will take off with 5G as its wings, Lei said.

With the number of IOT devices rapidly increasing, an AI assistant is needed to help human-machine intelligent communication and smart information processing, Lei said, adding that Xiao AI, the firm's smart voice assistant developed in recent years, had gained 30 million-plus active users in the last month.

This AI smart communication system will be installed in tens of billions of IOT devices in future, Lei believes, making AI assistant the core technology IOT devices.

Humanity has already embarked on the AI era with international and Chinese tech giants taking the lead, Lei noted, adding that Xiaomi had no choice but to set AI as its most vital strategy since over 1,000 start-ups were already competing fiercely in the sector.

Editor: Ben Armour