China Market Insider - Series "China's AI Factories" Part 4 How AI Factories Are Transforming the Manufacturing Industry: Example Seres

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China is using AI for concrete improvements in industrial production. In part four of our series, we show this using the example of Seres.

Chongqing, the metropolis of 30 million people in southwest China, has become a new center of the Chinese automotive industry. Not only were more vehicles produced here last year than in any other Chinese city. From January to November 2025 alone, the figure was 2.5 million. The city is now also home to some of China's most modern production facilities.

One example is the "Seres AI super factory" in the Liangjiang district of Chongqing. Seres is a Chinese car manufacturer founded in Chongqing in 1986. The company's origins lie in the production of electric contact springs. Later, the company built "bread cars", the mini minibuses that were popular in China at the time.

Seres is a private company, but now has state investment funds as important shareholders. The company has been building cars since 2003, initially in cooperation with a state-owned car manufacturer and since 2018 in a strategic cooperation with the technology group Huawei.

Since 2021, Seres and Huawei have been jointly building intelligent e-cars under the Aito brand, which have become very successful on the Chinese market in recent years. It was the first of Huawei's so-called "HIMA alliances". Seres builds the hardware for the vehicles, while Huawei supplies digital components such as the intelligent cockpit and the ADAS driver assistance system.

Huawei has now also built an AI data center for the car factory, which the company calls the "Seres Industrial Brain". The entire production of the two car models Aito M8 and Aito M9 is controlled from the control room on large screens and with digital twins.

Many workers are no longer to be seen on the production lines. "With the coordinated use of more than 3,000 robots, the pressing, welding and painting workshops have achieved 100 percent automation," wrote the news portal Jimu Xinwen after a visit to the factory.

Artificial intelligence is also heavily integrated into all parts of production, quality control, logistics and the coordination of supply chains with suppliers.

Among other things, the AI monitors the processes of a gigacasting machine. The 9,800-ton press casts the rear of the body, whereby 222 traditional components have been reduced to ten large parts.

During production, i.e. not only during "end-of-line" inspections, AI is also used to implement quality control in real time, for example when checking chassis bolts that have just been assembled.

When a vehicle passes an inspection point, cameras take images of the vehicle underbody and send the data to the central AI data center. There, AI and deep learning models for object recognition and image segmentation are used to check the condition and position of the more than 100 different bolts.

This work, which used to be done manually and took at least five minutes, is now completed within seconds. The accuracy of the check is 99.9 percent, company employees told reporters from "Jimu".

Another example of AI directly in the production process is the inspection of cable harnesses. Because some of them run deep inside the vehicle, an employee uses a smartphone to take pictures, which are then checked by a convolutional neural network (CNN). Any incorrectly routed high-voltage wiring harness or incorrectly engaged plug connection is detected within seconds.

Several hundred of these test stations, which monitor just as many key production processes, are installed along the assembly lines of the Seres AI factory.

Huawei's press releases also state that a combination of AI, big data and IoT made it possible to validate the design and simulate production processes even before ramping up production.

The direct integration of suppliers into production is also interesting. Employees of the car company Seres and the suppliers Yanfeng Automotive (exterior systems) and Wencan Group (die casting) stand next to each other in the factory halls, wearing identical uniforms and can only be distinguished from each other by the respective company logo on their chests. Seres calls this a "factory-within-a-factory model".

However, it is not just these major suppliers, who are directly involved in the assembly line, but also 50 other suppliers of key components who are integrated into the production of the cars via "direct end-to-end connections" with the help of AI. It is a "deeply AI-integrated ecosystem led by Seres", writes Jimu Xinwen.

The keyword "ecosystem" also appears conspicuously often in the announcements of the city of Chongqing, which is proud of the fact that 19 large manufacturers and more than 1,200 medium-sized suppliers have now set up shop there.

The city supports its manufacturing companies and large OEMs by setting up pilot projects on the topic of "AI plus manufacturing" and by establishing several AI innovation platforms, among other things. The Jialing River Laboratory, whose experts specialize in cutting-edge AI applications, plays a key role in this.

Such an interlinking of OEMs, suppliers and AI expertise is a very progressive idea. Chongqing is proud of this, even if it is difficult to tell from the official Chinese on the "ichongqing.com" website.

"Chongqing is stepping up its efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into the manufacturing sector. Focusing on key industries, the city is driving forward the deep embedding of AI in all manufacturing processes," it says rather matter-of-factly.

Further Examples of AI Factories in China

China Market Insider 

How AI Factories Are Transforming the Manufacturing Industry: Example Midea

China Market Insider – Series "China's AI Factories" Part 2

How AI Factories Are Transforming the Manufacturing Industry: Example Xiaomi

China Market Insider – Series "China's AI Factories" Part 3

How AI Factories Are Transforming the Manufacturing Industry: Example CATL