(Yicai) April 16 -- Artificial intelligence-powered consumer goods have taken center stage at the sixth China International Consumer Products Expo in Hainan province, with the technology transforming their capabilities as they leap toward commercialization.

AI tech has helped a lot in the research and development and application of brain-computer interfaces, making it fast and accurate to "read the brain," a person in charge of BCI startup BrainCo told Yicai at the expo, held in Haikou from April 13 through 18.

BrainCo showed its Brain Science AI Robotic Arm Maker Kit, an entry-level tool for BCI targeting the education sector, that aims to enable ordinary people, especially teenagers, to experience, learn, and practice brain control + AI + robotic arm tech at a low cost, according to the Hangzhou-based company.

"The signals sent by the brain are very weak and vary from human to human," the person from BrainCo said. "We had to spend a long time training the system to recognize people's intentions in the past, but now AI can quickly extract key information from the messy signals."

Intelligent human-computer interaction and BCI products can bring new experiences to consumers and become daily accessories that extend human perception and intelligence in healthcare, education, daily life, and other areas, the person pointed out.

Smart glasses, smart robots, and AI computers have ranked as the top three most popular categories of 3C (computers, communications, and consumer) products on Tmall, Song Tao, vice president of Alibaba Group Holding's Taobao and Tmall Group, said to Yicai. Smart glasses sales surged more than 25 times during the Double 11 shopping festival last year from a year earlier, transforming from "geek toys" to mass consumer goods, Song added.

AI is also helping merchants on e-commerce platforms enhance their business capabilities, Song noted. Two billion items sold on Taobao and Tmall have been better understood and organized thanks to the technology, resulting in a double-digit growth in the accuracy of matching potential users with products, Song pointed out.

The integration with AI is profoundly transforming the production and sales models of traditional consumer goods suppliers, Tu Hongyan, chairperson of Wensli Group, told Yicai. The firm is undergoing a transformation from a traditional silk supplier to one that uses AI to revamp the entire process from design, production, marketing, to after-sales service, Tu added.

Wensli has achieved personalized customization and flexible production of silk products, Tu said. "With the help of AI agents, the company can design silk scarves according to the customers' personalized requirements and finish production within one hour after consumers place an order, delivering the products within two hours."

This year will be crucial for AI to deeply integrate into daily business operations, Alfred Yin, managing partner of the retail and consumer products industry at Ernst & Young in China, told media, including Yicai. "The significance of AI to the retail sector has transcended from being an IT tool to cut costs and hike efficiency to an infrastructure that reshapes the fundamental logic of business."

Companies need to possess new content and data operation capabilities, with the competitive barriers in the market shifting from the scale-driven cost advantages to algorithm-driven agile response capabilities, Yin said. Although AI algorithms can provide ultimate business efficiency, what truly transcends the cycle and wins consumers' loyalty remains the incalculable emotional connection and brand consistency, he added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev