AI in China ②: "We're a Billion-RMB Company Now, and AI Helped Us Grow Revenue Another 30%" | Case Studies and Insights from Nuanwa Technology and Baiyaoshi

AI in China ②: "We're a Billion-RMB Company Now, and AI Helped Us Grow Revenue Another 30%" | Case Studies and Insights from Nuanwa Technology and Baiyaoshi

September 22, 2024

In the Crossroads podcast episode "AI in China: 10 Enterprise Deployment Cases and Their Business Lessons | A Conversation with Ren Xin, Partner at Sky9 Capital," we introduced ten cases of AI deployment in Chinese enterprises, which was well received.

Among the ten cases, two stood out as the most representative: Nuanwa Technology (a 1-billion-yuan insurance tech company) and Baiyaoshi (an AI innovation company under a ten-thousand-store pharmacy chain). Today, we've invited the operators and business leads behind both companies to share their stories of AI implementation in greater depth.

In the AI application space, a persistent topic of debate has been that AI apps have yet to find strong product-market fit. Is this really the case? A few months ago, we put forward a different view: this wave of AI is not lacking PMF; rather, many PMFs are currently being realized inside excellent enterprises, mainly for cost reduction and efficiency gains rather than being offered externally as products or services — which is why they remain unknown to the outside world.

While these practices at leading companies may not directly translate into opportunities for startups, they do prove AI's business value. As technology matures and large model costs continue to fall, AI will inevitably expand to benefit more enterprises and consumers, thereby creating more entrepreneurial opportunities.

Guests

  • Leo Li Haorong: General Manager of Baiyaoshi, an AI technology innovation company under a pharmacy chain with ten thousand stores.
  • Mo Zihao: Partner/COO of Nuanwa Technology, the lead person responsible for landing AI technology in business operations; Nuanwa is an insurance technology company focused on health insurance. Personal newsletter: The Journey Is the Reward.

🎬 Episode Timeline

🟢 Part 1. Nuanwa Technology: AI-Powered Insurance Sales

02:46 — Mo Zihao, COO of Nuanwa Technology, shares how they apply AI to the insurance sales process:

  • Dividing the sales process into three stages, gradually increasing AI involvement
  • Using AI to assist with SOP execution and improve sales efficiency
  • Deploying AI to handle lower-priority sales opportunities and scale the business
  • Achieving roughly 30% GMV growth

🟢 Part 2. Baiyaoshi: AI-Assisted Pharmacy Services

08:32 — Leo, General Manager of Baiyaoshi, introduces how they apply AI in their pharmacy chain:

  • Developing AI-assisted tools to help staff provide more professional medication advice
  • Using AI to improve related-product sales
  • Leveraging AI to generate personalized marketing content

🟢 Part 3. Challenges and Solutions in AI Deployment

18:26 — Both guests share common challenges they encountered in implementing AI:

  • How to get frontline employees to trust and adopt AI recommendations
  • How to balance commercial interests with customer value
  • How to handle and protect sensitive data

🟢 Part 4. Advice for Other Enterprises

51:18 — Based on their experience, the guests offer the following advice for companies looking to apply AI:

  • Choose application scenarios that can directly generate business value
  • Start with small-scale pilots and gradually expand the scope
  • Emphasize data accumulation and model iteration
  • Focus on human-AI collaboration rather than completely replacing humans with AI

🟢 Part 5. Conviction in AI

49:57 — "My conviction in AI keeps growing."

50:55 — "In the age of AI, companies below a certain scale may simply not survive."

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We track the industry shifts and new entrepreneurial opportunities brought by the new wave of AI technology. "Crossroads" is Steve Jobs's metaphor for Apple — a company standing at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, where great products are born. AI is transforming every industry. We seek out, interview, and bring together "active agents" of the AI era to explore and embrace new changes and new possibilities together.

👦🏻 Host Koji: Co-founder of The Fair and Tangdao. I believe technology, especially AI, will fundamentally transform society and empower humanity. Feel free to reach out to chat, exchange ideas, and connect on what's next. Koji on Jike, Koji's website

👧🏻 Host Ronghui: Works at a tech VC; former Silicon Valley correspondent for Yicai Weekly. Ronghui on Jike

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