New National Standards for AI Terminals

On May 8, 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly released the series of national standards titled “Intelligent Classification of AI Terminals” (GB/Z 177—2026). These standards specify the requirements for various products, including smartphones, computers, televisions, glasses, car cockpits, speakers, and headphones.

Experts believe that these standards clearly define the intelligence levels of AI terminals, laying a solid foundation for building a safe, orderly, and efficient ecosystem for AI terminals. They will also promote the coordinated development of China’s AI terminal industry, achieving scale advantages and leading standards.

Diverse Product Forms

AI terminals are key carriers for the large-scale implementation and systematic development of AI technology. In recent years, China’s AI industry has flourished, with AI terminals driving a variety of intelligent scenarios, continuously giving rise to new products, business models, and experiences. This has effectively stimulated consumer enthusiasm and become an important lever for tapping domestic demand and optimizing consumption structure.

This year, driven by the expansion of the old-for-new consumption policy and the deep integration of AI technology with consumer products, AI terminals have become increasingly popular among consumers. In the first quarter, China’s smartphone production reached 298 million units, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%, while service robot production exceeded 4.4 million units, up 2.6% year-on-year.

Wei Ran, chief engineer of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, explained that AI terminals, driven by large models, represent a new generation of intelligent terminals. Compared to traditional terminals, they have four major functional upgrades: the ability to actively perceive scenarios, accurately understand user intentions; support for multi-modal interactions including text, voice, and audio-video; capability for generative applications and intelligent agent services; and autonomous learning and continuous evolution based on personal large models and knowledge bases.

“Overall, intelligent terminals have evolved from traditional passive execution tools to intelligent assistants that can perceive, understand, serve, and grow, redefining the human-machine interaction relationship. These functions are core points assessed in the highest level of the intelligent classification national standards,” Wei said.

Currently, AI terminals exhibit a rich variety of forms, with traditional terminals upgrading, emerging terminals expanding, and future terminal explorations evolving in parallel. Traditional terminals like AI smartphones, computers, and tablets have surpassed ten million units in shipments, becoming the market’s main force. New categories such as intelligent in-car terminals, smart glasses, and intelligent toys are rapidly growing, while native terminal forms represented by embodied intelligence continue to explore, further accelerating the application of AI.

Wei analyzed that the systematic integration of AI and terminal technology requires breakthroughs in three key areas: optimizing the edge-cloud collaboration architecture, enhancing hardware capabilities, and upgrading security and privacy protection systems.

Clear Evaluation System

Since 2023, leading enterprises in the smartphone and computer industries have actively launched AI terminal-related products, each with different functional focuses. The lack of definitions and classification standards for AI terminals has made it difficult for consumers to accurately assess the intelligence levels of different products and has complicated product development and market positioning for companies. The absence of a unified consensus on terminal intelligence classification has led to concept generalization and misuse, with some products falling into parameter stacking and disconnects between function promotion and actual experience.

The “Intelligent Classification of AI Terminals” series of national standards adopts a “2+N” framework. The “2” refers to “Part 1: Reference Framework” and “Part 2: General Requirements,” which clarify the concepts of intelligence, classification levels, and testing methods. The classification system ranges from L1 response level, L2 tool level, L3 assistant level, to L4 collaborative level, with increasing intelligence levels. The L4 collaborative level will be further clarified and improved in subsequent revisions based on industry development levels. The “N” represents specific standards for different products such as smartphones, computers, televisions, glasses, car cockpits, speakers, and headphones. The first batch includes seven categories, with plans to develop standards for additional categories in the future.

Li Hongwei, chief engineer of the China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute, stated that the highlights of this series of standards are scenario-based, quantifiable, and consider both edge and cloud, covering various scenarios such as office work, learning, and design. This provides a unified “health check standard” for AI terminals, regulating industry development and allowing consumers to make informed purchases with confidence.

The series of standards provides a scientific and unified evaluation system for the large-scale application and intelligent classification management of AI terminal products in China. This will help regulate market order and enhance user experience. Additionally, it will accelerate the innovation and iterative upgrade of AI terminal technology products, precisely guiding technological research and development directions, and ensuring sustainable industry development. The introduction of these standards will also enhance China’s voice in the global standard-setting for AI terminals, reducing technical barriers for enterprises going abroad and improving international competitiveness.

“On one hand, the standards provide enterprises with directions for improvement to meet benchmarks, facilitating the supply of high-end products, enhancing resource utilization efficiency, and promoting orderly competition and healthy development. On the other hand, they provide consumers with technical and evaluation bases, ensuring that the demand side has standards to rely on for better selection of intelligent products, enhancing user experience and satisfaction,” said Yu Xiuming, deputy director of the China Electronic Technology Standardization Research Institute.

Accelerating Technological Inclusivity

Lenovo Group participated in the drafting of these standards. Currently, AI PCs account for over 30% of Lenovo’s PC shipments. Its built-in personal super intelligent agent, Tianxi AI, is advancing towards becoming a “personal super-powered partner” for users. Lenovo Group Vice President Abulike Mu stated that Lenovo will actively implement national standards, continuously innovate terminal products around Tianxi AI, refine terminal innovation application scenarios and user experiences, and drive collaborative innovation among upstream and downstream partners in the industry chain to promote high-quality development of the AI terminal industry and accelerate the inclusivity of AI terminals.

To promote the innovative development of the AI terminal industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will strengthen the implementation of standards, conduct standard interpretations and specialized training, build a compliance testing platform, encourage leading enterprises to take the lead in trials, and create demonstration cases and benchmark products for standard applications. They will accelerate the iteration of the standard system, optimize and improve standard content, and continue to expand the coverage of standards, aiming to establish a unified standard system that includes various terminal forms. This will stimulate consumer-led effectiveness, ensuring the implementation of standards in this year’s old-for-new consumption policy, and forming a catalog of AI terminal products to guide public consumption decisions, expanding the breadth and depth of AI applications and creating hot consumption scenarios.

Yu Xiuming mentioned that they will continue to enrich standard categories, developing more standards for wearable devices, home appliances, and trendy toys, ensuring that the intelligent classification of various terminals has standards to rely on. This will provide standard and technical support for the implementation of national policies and offer standard consulting and product evaluation services to society, aiding high-quality development of the industry.