August 13, 2025
5 min read
孙迟
Baidu Advances Enterprise Efficiency with AI-Powered Digital Employees
Chinese technology giant Baidu Inc is making a significant push into digital employees powered by artificial intelligence (AI) agents, driven by rapid advancements in AI technology, new algorithms, models, and applications. Industry experts highlight that AI is increasingly used to identify user needs and solve problems, leading to the rise of digital workforces. These AI-powered digital employees are becoming central to reshaping enterprise organizational forms and improving operational efficiency. Ruan Yu, vice-president of Baidu, emphasized that the capabilities of large language models are evolving at an unprecedented pace. This accelerated evolution is shifting AI from a human-machine collaboration model to autonomous AI agents. "An increasing number of new types of workers will emerge in daily work," Ruan said. "AI agents will participate in all aspects of enterprise operations as 'digital employees,' driving revolutionary changes in organizational productivity." AI agents have gained global attention and experienced explosive growth since early 2025. Unlike traditional chatbots, AI agents autonomously perform complex tasks by designing workflows and utilizing available tools, delivering tangible results across various industries. According to a report by Beijing-based market research firm EO Intelligence, China's AI agent marketing and sales market reached 44.2 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) in 2024 and is projected to exceed 1 trillion yuan within five years. Baidu AI Cloud, the company’s cloud computing division, recently launched its first batch of AI-powered digital employees. These digital employees cover core business functions such as marketing managers, car salespersons, promotion specialists, product managers, course advisers, and recruitment specialists. Deeply integrating large language models, digital human technology, and industry expertise, these digital employees can understand and handle complex tasks, integrate directly into business processes, and take responsibility for outcomes. Baidu plans to expand the range of digital employees across sectors including education, automotive, finance, and fast-moving consumer goods. Collaborations with leading clients aim to build specialized AI employees like bank marketing specialists and university admission consultants to enhance productivity, reduce repetitive work, and accelerate digital transformation. Global consultancy Gartner predicts that by 2027, AI agents will augment or automate 50% of business decisions, enhancing decision-making by managing complex analysis and data retrieval. Gartner notes AI agents can plan and automate tasks, make informed decisions, and interact dynamically with their environment. Agentic AI is also set to revolutionize service interactions. Customers and organizations will increasingly use AI agents to automate service requests, fundamentally reshaping relationships between service teams and customers. Daniel O'Sullivan, senior director analyst at Gartner Customer Service & Support Practice, stated, "As customers leverage agentic AI-powered agents to initiate, manage, and negotiate service requests, service teams must adapt by embracing new roles and skills to collaborate effectively with these intelligent systems." He added, "Agentic AI is a game-changer for customer service, enabling autonomous, low-effort customer experiences. Unlike traditional generative AI tools that assist with information, agentic AI proactively resolves service requests, marking a new era in customer engagement." Zhu Min, former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, observed that employment structures will fundamentally transform. "Simple and repetitive work will be replaced, leading to a structural change in the employment system rather than just a change in the total number of jobs."Source: Baidu puts faith in AI agents for efficiency