China's integrated development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the software and information technology services industry will reach new heights by 2030, with new business models — including intelligent programming, AI agent software, and intelligent services — emerging as new growth engines for the sector, according to an action plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The plan specifies that by 2028, the intelligence level of the software and IT service industry will be markedly improved. Its promotion and application will cover 20,000 software enterprises above designated size. A total of 100 intelligent technological transformation projects for software firms will be rolled out, 100 benchmark applications of AI agent software will be built in key industries, and more than five high-quality open-source projects will be incubated.

AI is reshaping software product forms and transforming software development models, presenting a historic opportunity for the software industry to reshape its competitive landscape and achieve leapfrog development via new tracks, the MIIT said. The plan will accelerate the reshaping of software and information technology services powered by AI and improve the quality of IT services.

Based on the varying foundations and development stages of software enterprises, the plan has designed three transformation pathways have been designed to guide software companies to embrace the trend of intelligent transformation:

◆Accelerating changes to production modes, and boosting quality and efficiency through intelligent programming tools.

◆Guiding enterprises to build intelligent product portfolios, and advancing intelligent upgrading of traditional products such as basic software and industrial software.

◆Facilitating enterprises' transformation into AI application service providers, supporting their procurement of large models and AI agent services, and improving the effectiveness of AI adoption across the industry.

A series of arrangements have been made across six key areas including advancing transformation in software production, accelerating the intelligent upgrade of software products, and fostering new business models of AI agent software.

Specific measures include developing AI agent-driven intelligent programming tools, supporting enterprises in utilizing large models, enriching the intelligent functions of software, and optimizing human-machine collaborative production organization.

For nurturing and expanding providers of intelligent software services, regions with the necessary conditions are encouraged to develop "AI + software" innovation and entrepreneurship clusters, coordinating the provision of supporting resources such as venues and computing power.

Software security capacity will be substantially enhanced. The plan requires strengthened security review for AI-generated code, prevention of new types of attacks such as malicious instruction injection against intelligent programming tools, and tightened access control for development tools and code repositories. Meanwhile, it calls for strengthening governance of intellectual property compliance of AI-generated code.

Support will be offered to eligible"AI+software"projects.Special funds will be deployed to accelerate R&D of key technologies,infrastructure development and scenario-based applications.