Millions of Chinese factory owners have been bequeathed a difficult inheritance. AI offers a way to modernize their parents’ low-margin businesses, but only if they can overcome often deep-rooted resistance to change.
Illustration by Luis Grañena
Guo Ruize is a dutiful son. After graduating with a degree in mechanical engineering in 2016, Guo joined his father’s laser-cutting factory in the northeastern city of Shenyang.
At the time, factory management was largely paper-based. A clipboard hung on a workshop wall. Managers would grab it to scribble handwritten changes to the production schedule as new orders came in.
The factory cuts various materials into sheets for clients across a range of industries. Every day brought a new co
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