The old logic has become invalid, and new growth has arrived: Haier Biomedical's three major strategies reveal the fundamental answers in life sciences

If we place China’s life sciences industry today on a global coordinate system, one number is impossible to ignore—1% vs 40%.

Among the top five domestic life sciences tool companies, global market share still hovers around 1%, while the top five global leaders firmly hold nearly 40% of the market. This is not a simple difference, but a real gap that cuts across the industry’s upgrading and development.

When the “15th Five-Year Plan” elevates “Artificial Intelligence + biomanufacturing” as a core direction of new-quality productive forces, and when life sciences moves from “equipment-driven” to a new stage of “data-driven + intelligent-driven,” this 1% position is being redefined.

On March 24, Haier Biomedical held an ecological partner co-creation summit titled “Transform with AI, Leapfrog & Coexistence” in Qingdao, releasing three major strategies in a concentrated manner—an AI + in-field integrated strategy, a science-and-industry co-creation strategy, and a new era channel strategy.

At the same time, it completed ecological signings for an “AI autonomous laboratory” and implemented multi-party cooperation. This is not just a one-time strategic release, but a clear articulation of a path.

Building the foundation with AI, defining innovation in reverse from demand, and amplifying value through channels—an entire closed-loop for industrial leapfrogging is taking shape.

01

AI is rewriting research productivity

From “automation tools” to “autonomous experimental systems”

Over many past years, the progress of laboratories, in essence, has been progress in “equipment capability.”

Faster instruments, more precise reagents, more automated processes—these have been the main thread of improvements in research efficiency. But today, this path is running up against a ceiling.

Because the real problem has never been the equipment itself, but “people.” Researchers are still trapped in repetitive operations—data fragmentation, isolated workflows, and decision-making dependent on experience. These hidden inefficiencies are far more fatal than equipment bottlenecks.

And it is precisely in this context that Haier Biomedical’s AI strategy begins to change one thing fundamentally—the role of “people.”

Within this system, researchers are no longer just operators. They experience three leaps: from “people who operate equipment,” to “people who orchestrate AI,” and then to “people who only make decisions.”

Behind this is not a simple automation upgrade, but an entire progressive technical pathway: from AI + product integration based on single-item automation, to AI + scenario integration coordinating multiple devices, and then to AI + end-to-end integration with an experimental-and-data double closed loop.

In the end, it leads to a clear endpoint—an AI autonomous laboratory.

Supporting all of this is an intelligent system centered on AutoLab Mind. From central decision-making, to dispatching and execution, to standardized interactions between equipment and data, it forms a complete “cognition—decision—execution” closed loop.

More importantly, this is not a blueprint that stays at the conceptual level.

At this conference, Haier Biomedical, together with Alibaba Cloud and the Embodied Intelligence Special Committee, jointly signed a co-creation agreement for an “AI autonomous laboratory,” and implemented it in Shanghai Innovation Factory, pushing AI from the “validation stage” to “scale application.”

This means one thing is happening: the laboratory is no longer a collection of equipment, and is becoming an “intelligent system” that can operate autonomously.

And when research shifts from “experience-driven” to “AI-driven,” what is truly unleashed is not only efficiency, but innovation itself.

02

Science-and-industry co-creation is rewriting the logic of innovation

From “enterprises define products” to “demand defines innovation”

If AI addresses “how to do things faster,” then another deeper question is: “what should be done that is actually right?”

For a long time, domestic scientific instruments have faced a typical dilemma—companies develop products in labs, while clinicians solve problems on the front line. Between the two, however, there is no real connection.

This rupture determines that many innovations stop at “can be made,” but cannot move toward “can be used.” What Haier Biomedical proposes this time—“science-and-industry co-creation”—is, in essence, about bridging this rupture.

It no longer defines products with the enterprise at the center; instead, it allows the demand side to enter the innovation source directly. R&D personnel go into clinical settings, follow doctors into wards, observe workflows, and find pain points—not “understanding demand,” but “participating in demand.”

As emphasized repeatedly on site at the conference, a line of saying went like this: whoever can truly solve users’ pain points will get future orders. This kind of mechanism does not stop at ideas.

At this summit, multiple co-creation cases have already been implemented: automated sample bank systems, stem cell preparation solutions, fully enclosed cell expansion systems… These are not merely “product releases,” but “results of demand transformation.”

At the same time, Haier Biomedical has also completed strategic signings with 8 organizations including Shunfeng Medical and Southeast University, building a full life-cycle closed loop of “research—clinical—industry.”

Behind it, what truly works is a platform—Haiyi Hui. It connects research institutions, hospitals, enterprises, and channels, turning “demand—R&D—implementation” into a sustainable cycle.

This means a deeper change: in the past, innovation was linear; now, innovation is starting to become networked. In the past, enterprises looked for markets; now, markets define enterprises in reverse.

When the source of innovation changes, domestic scientific instruments also gain the opportunity to move from “catch-up” to “leading.”

03

From “selling equipment” to “building scenarios”

Channels are becoming the new growth engine

As emphasized by Mr. Yingkang Yisheng Life Sciences CEO at the conference, industry competition is shifting from “product competition” to “scenario competition and ecosystem competition.”

Under this shift, what companies truly compete on is no longer single-point capabilities, but system-level integration capabilities. And channels are the most critical value amplifiers within this whole framework.

This is the proposition of channels; but today, channels are undergoing a drastic reconfiguration. Demand is changing—from single products to scenarios; policies are changing—from relationships to compliance; competition is changing—from scarcity to internal competition.

Mr. Shao Songjie, General Manager of Haier Biomedical China, shared a set of data: taking ultra-low temperature brands as an example, 20 years ago there were fewer than 5 licensed brands in China, and they were almost monopolized by foreign capital. Today, China’s domestic mainstream brands have exceeded 20.

Meanwhile, domestic market growth is under pressure, while overseas markets maintain high growth. The reason behind this, precisely summarized by Ms. Tan Lixia, Vice Chairman of Haier Group and Executive Vice President, and Chairwoman of Yingkang Yisheng, is—“not bending down.” Without seeing the grassroots, without understanding the scenarios, and without truly entering users.

And it is precisely in this context that Haier Biomedical has proposed the “new era channel strategy.” The core of this strategy is not expanding channels, but reconstructing channel logic.

From “layer-by-layer price markups” to “value-based revenue sharing”; from “selling products” to “creating solutions”; from “channel merchants” to “scenario partners.”

The types of channels have also been redefined—online platforms, EPC packagers, large platform providers, grassroots channels… Each type of channel corresponds to a scenario entry point.

What determines victory or defeat is no longer resources, but one capability: understanding scenarios. As Chairwoman Tan Lixia said, “Whoever can bend down will get more profit.” This shift is changing the entire commercial logic—equipment is the entry point, solutions provide stickiness, and service is long-term value.

Ultimately, Haier Biomedical hopes to build an ecosystem with 1,000+ partners, so that channels are no longer a cost center, but become a value amplifier.

Conclusion

Not just three major strategies

It is more a new paradigm taking shape

What is truly worth paying attention to is never only the three strategies themselves, but the capability reconfiguration they point to behind them.

The answer Haier Biomedical provides is not a single breakthrough, but a whole set of structural reshaping: AI, rebuilding the productivity foundation; science-and-industry co-creation, reshaping the source of innovation; the new era of channels, rebuilding the value distribution path.

The three interlock with each other to form a closed loop. This also means it is evolving from a device company into a platform-based life sciences enterprise with systemic capabilities.

More importantly, this path is providing new coordinates for the entire industry—when equipment steps back to the entry point, when data becomes the foundation, and when the ecosystem becomes the moat, the competitive logic of the life sciences industry has already completed its switch.

The new cycle has begun, and the true watershed has only just begun to emerge from this moment.

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