BlockBeats reported on July 17 that Yin Qi, chairman of StepFun and chairman of Qianli Technology, appeared as a guest at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and delivered a keynote speech in the morning main forum titled "When Agents Enter the Physical World."
Yin says the next AI breakout will come from agents and new terminals
In the speech, Yin said the next round of expansion in the AI industry will come from the combination of agent models and next-generation terminal products. He said intelligence is moving beyond digital screens and into the real physical world, a shift that will drive three structural changes across the industry: new systems, new carriers, and new networks.
Model capability has crossed a critical threshold, he says
Yin said model capability had crossed a key threshold in 2026. According to his remarks, AI has advanced from carrying out simple tasks in seconds to working independently for dozens of hours. He also said programming languages are becoming the core yardstick for the next stage of AI capability after natural language, and that the industry as a whole is now standing at the foot of the AGI peak.
As the technology continues to iterate, Yin said agents are becoming the smallest unit of productivity. He said dedicated agents are likely to appear in professional settings including engineers, designers, and researchers, giving a single person the productive capacity of a full team.
Three foundational industry shifts
Yin said the rise of agents will bring three foundational changes to industry.
- New systems: agent capability will be determined jointly by model capability and the capability of an Agentic OS. He said the latter connects models with data, tools, and devices, defines the practical boundary of what an agent can do, and will become core infrastructure in the agent era.
- New carriers: the design philosophy of terminals will shift from "human-centered" to "human-machine symbiosis." PCs, smartphones, cars, and robots will act as multi-scenario carriers for the same agent, allowing intelligence to persist across terminals, move freely, and complete tasks in coordination.
- New networks: A2A, or Agent to Agent, networks will form a human-machine symbiotic value network made up of people and agents. Yin said agents will have independent identity and credit systems, allowing them to collaborate and transact autonomously and providing the base layer for an agent economy.
The remarks were cited by the STAR Market Daily.