Whale businessman, who are you more optimistic about in a competition between AI and designers?

AI design is leveraging the integrated development of "science, industry and trade".

Author | Dahl Wen

The new model GPT-4o released by OpenAI has once again subverted everyone's cognition. GPT-4o is an all-round model that integrates text, pictures, video, and voice, and can chat in real time, make video calls, and even understand human emotions. GPT-4o has also been evaluated as the most human-like AI. Will AI, which is getting closer to humans, eventually replace us?

It is undeniable that AI is infiltrating our work and life at an accelerated pace.

The 7th "Yiwu China Commodity City" Cup International Commodity Creative Design Competition (hereinafter referred to as "Mall Cup") in 2024 is currently underway, and many domestic and foreign universities and well-known institutions are participating.

This year, unlike previous editions, AI works can also be entered. The "Mall Cup" is also the first small commodity design competition in China with the participation of AI tools, creating a precedent for competing on the same stage.

Now that the preliminary evaluation of the works has been successfully completed, there have been many unexpected AI entries in the competition. Who is better, AI works or human designers?

Warren Buffett believes that AI's potential risks and transformative capabilities are no less than nuclear weapons, "Like nuclear technology, this genie has been released from the bottle, and I don't know anything about it." He also said that the power of AI is absolutely incredible, and any labor-intensive industry will be threatened by AI.

The design industry is bearing the brunt. Midjourney, an AI painting tool, can provide functions such as "Wensheng Diagram" and "Tusheng Diagram"; Sora generates videos with textual videos; Sun Lingyun, Dean of the International Design Institute of Zhejiang University, and his team launched the work "The Canal · Grows · Vientiane", which uses AI to depict the ancient charm and new appearance of the thousand-year-old canal and provide new possibilities for art.

The "Pandora's box" is being opened, what impact will AI bring to the design industry? What changes will the integration of AI bring to the upstream Yiwu foreign trade industry?

AI design is leveraging the integrated development of "science, industry and trade" in Yiwu's industrial belt.

"Mall Cup" competes on the same stage, AI replaces designers?

Since the advent of ChatGPT, AI and large models at home and abroad have exploded in full swing. There has also been a blowout of events around AI, but AI and designers are competing on the same stage, and the "Mall Cup" is the first in China.

Backed by the Yiwu Industrial Belt, the competition does not only stay in the design of this link, excellent works will be directly put into production and sales, and accept the test of the market. This year's competition has specially added a special track of "Artificial Intelligence Small Commodity Creative Design", where participants can choose toys, decorative crafts, clothing, jewelry and other categories, and use AI tools to generate product solutions.

Why does Yiwu Industrial Belt allow AI to participate at this time?

The high efficiency of AI can just meet the design needs of Yiwu under the trend of new and fast and fragmentation. Yiwu hopes to find AI solutions from design to sales and production through the competition.

In the past, Yiwu lacked design talents, and the profit margin of traditional foreign trade was low, and it was difficult to afford high-level designers. At this stage, it is more thirsty for talents.

The increase in fragmented orders, and new forms such as short videos and live broadcasts have given rise to personalized and younger needs, allowing daily haberdashery to be quickly exposed and shorten the life cycle.

"The speed of launching new models this year has also accelerated, and I thought that the business was okay, so I was too lazy to do it. Now I have a sense of crisis, and I think I may be killed by my peers next month if I don't push it. Hongsheng toys proprietress Sun Lijuan said.

National trends such as horse face skirts and new Chinese styles have also set off a trend overseas, which is one of the reasons why national tides have become the theme of the AI track. Design is a key part of bringing fashion trends to life. And AI offers new possibilities for design.

Previously, Chinagoods has made an attempt to launch an AI one-click image generation function on the downstream sales side, which only needs to take a product photo, and the background image can be replaced with multiple sets of different templates.

After the designer and Yiwu boss used the AI tool, their attitude also changed from anxiety to acceptance.

"Everyone has software like Midjourney, but when ChatGPT first came out, it was still anxious and panicked. After calming down, we found that it can improve our efficiency. Chen Piao, a judge of the competition, said. Judge Chen Piao is also the person in charge of Yiwu Jiachuang Industrial Design Co., Ltd., helping Yiwu enterprises and designers to connect, and feeling the transformation of AI to the industry in the process.

The Yiwu proprietress always felt that there was a distance between AI and her work and life. After the use of tools such as digital boss ladies, boss ladies embraced AI.

After tasting the sweetness, the proprietors are looking forward to having efficient design tools on the upstream production design side. Yiwu is also looking for AI to serve the Yiwu industrial belt through the competition.

"The industry is in a state of mushrooming chaos, and in this case, I think the unique thing about the "Mall Cup" is to provide a systematic solution. From how technology becomes a tool, how to serve products, how to drive sales, to open up this chain. Sun Lingyun, a professor at Zhejiang University, said.

AI is deeply embedded in industrial design, will it really replace human designers in the future?

In fact, what the market lacks is people with an AI mindset.

AI Stamina + Human Inspiration = "All-Around Designer"

After all, for companies that pay for design, it's all about deliverables. As for whether the product image is made by AI or purely manual, the process is not so important.

AI and artificial are not opposites, it is more of a design tool like PS, Midjourney and other products.

Warren Buffett, who "doesn't know anything" about AI, once said that the more tools you design, the smarter the people who use them. Therefore, AI cannot completely replace humans, but the industry has higher requirements for the personal quality and innovation ability of designers. AI replaces "tool people" in the workplace.

Creativity is more important, and that's exactly what AI lacks. AI refers to the ability to simulate, simulate, and create human intelligence through computer programs and algorithms, making it difficult to innovate. Humans have complex emotions that AI cannot understand.

Creativity alone is not enough, the use of AI tools also tests the designer's language expression ability and understanding of requirements. In this way, the actual implementation can be completed through the dialogue with the AI through text description. The combination of AI's "physical strength" and the perception of human designers can turn more inspiration into reality.

"If the designer understands the requirements well, the keyword input will be more accurate, and the hit rate of the proposed will be high. If the designer does not understand enough, or the language expression ability is weak, he will understand a little wrong when he loses to the machine, and he will not be satisfied with the proposed plan. Chen Piao, a judge of the competition, said.

The AI has mastered the basic drawing skills, which is equivalent to an obedient and unlimited assistant engineer. In the whole process, human designers need to exert their "choreographing" ability, and the ability to be creative and descriptive is even more important than the design ability itself.

"AI needs a choreographer to write scripts in it. The needs of customers and future fashion trends must be combined. If the choreographer and director ability is not good, it is useless to have strong design ability. He Lihong, president of the Gift Packaging Industry Chamber of Commerce, said. He Lihong's previous design of Santa Claus with AI was well received by Italy customers, and this time she also participated in the AI track of the "Mall Cup".

This also means that AI has lowered the threshold for creation, and as long as the creativity is exciting enough, everyone has the opportunity to become a designer.

Of course, the most thorough understanding of the needs is the proprietress who has been active in the Yiwu market, and they have always been excellent "choreographers" in the past. From a business point of view, the proprietress is more sensitive to the market, and their vision can break through the limitations of designers. The combination of the boss's decades of business experience and the efficiency of AI mapping can better hit explosive products.

"There are a few computer graduates in Guangdong who have formed an e-commerce team, and they will first crawl the data on the Internet and then go to Yiwu to make purchases. Based on decades of business experience, the boss of Yiwu said that it may be better to sell where to adjust. As soon as the two are combined, the product is better, and the sales volume increases. Chen Piao, a judge of the competition, said.

It can be seen that AI can shorten the time for pre-testing. Quickly predicting trends through data is more efficient than traditional market research methods.

After being creative and using AI tools and descriptive skills, Yiwu proprietress also has the opportunity to design directly.

"There's a chasm between business thinking and design thinking. Now with AI design tools, the chasm is gone. Sun Lingyun, a professor at Zhejiang University, said. In addition to daily orders, the proprietress can ponder R&D and design in her spare time, and with the help of AI design drawings, the factory can immediately complete the follow-up manufacturing, improve the speed and efficiency of new product development.

The combination of AI and human designers can reduce costs and increase efficiency, which is exactly what businesses in the industrial belt urgently need.

In response to the problems of high design cost, long cycle and high mobility of small and medium-sized merchants, the second-generation operators of Yiwu Trade City have developed a self-developed model Zhiyi AI, which only needs text descriptions and reference images to generate the shape design and material preview of jewelry products.

Zhiyi AI Yiwu Trade City's second-generation operators self-developed AI design works

Models are frequent, but the current AI is still in development and is not perfect. First of all, the AI model needs to be constantly "fed", and some materials may be too old to generate novel images, which are more suitable for some simple logos. Secondly, at this stage, it is difficult for AI to be implemented in one step, and it needs to evolve step by step to meet the needs of creators. Finally, AI is limited by the creator, and the level of the creator determines the ceiling of the work.

Everything ultimately comes back to the power of man. This has forced colleges and universities to change the direction of cultivating talents. The original training program paid more attention to the hands-on ability of students, from the introduction to the mastery of software. More attention is now paid to the improvement of creative ability and the ability to use AI tools. Colleges and universities are also requiring students to use AI to complete their design assignments.

"Design is coming back to design itself, and in the past design has always been a lot of effort at the tool level." Sun Lingyun, a professor at Zhejiang University, said, "Now the tools are simple enough, the software may only need 10% of the effort, and 90% of the time can be spent on the exploration of design opportunities and the consideration of aesthetics." Something of higher value comes out. ”

The power of AI is far more than reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and this "nuclear weapon" will accelerate a new round of upgrading and reform of the industrial belt.

Solving the "growing pains" of the industrial belt

Under the transformation from "Made in China" to "Made in China", the industrial belt is also facing "growing pains".

Problems such as too many imitations, lack of originality, and low added value of products are not only faced by Yiwu, but also by the domestic industrial belt. The key is to get rid of the traditional growth mode and develop new quality productivity.

"One of the biggest characteristics of new quality productivity is innovation, and the most critical point of innovation is that the early design should be sufficient, the design quality should be high enough, and the update and iteration of product categories should be fast enough. Sun Lingyun, a professor at Zhejiang University, said.

With the help of AI to innovate, the industrial belt can leverage bigger business. Provide new opportunities for many sub-categories and market segments.

Due to the lack of design talents, there are many places in Guochao that have not been developed. Traditional culture is "large and sparse", and there are many sub-categories. Designers and companies have limited energy, and it is difficult to have a dedicated design team for each small category. Now, with AI design tools, the efficiency is greatly improved, and even if the category is small, as long as it is valuable, more market opportunities can be explored.

Similarly, leading operators can localize innovation according to different overseas markets, set up different AI models, output differentiated value, and better build brands.

The power of scientific and technological innovation is penetrating the entire industrial chain, from the front-end circulation and sales to the back-end design and manufacturing.

In the past, it was more about the innovation of front-end trade methods. From traditional foreign trade, to overseas e-commerce, to cross-border e-commerce, full custody and semi-custody mode. Now AI is making it possible for "everyone to become a designer", opening the "shackles" of innovation from the source of R&D and design. Back-end innovation may be able to bring fundamental changes to the industry and generate greater power.

In the future, AI has the potential to revolutionize the entire sales model. Aided by AI tools to accelerate innovation; Rapid response by the factory, "on-demand production"; It is promoted by marketing services and sold worldwide. Use the integration of science, industry and trade to achieve a closed loop of improving new quality productivity.

The integration of science, industry and trade will improve the efficiency of the industrial belt and is also the key to transformation. After all, the development trend of the industrial chain is to continuously reduce unnecessary intermediate links, reduce the cost of each process, and accelerate the integration of collaboration and linkage.

Under the empowerment of AI, the integration model of science, industry and trade can better play Yiwu's market, service, production and other advantages.

AI may be as transformative as Warren Buffett has said, no less than nuclear weapons. But it's also just a tool, and ultimately it's up to the person to use it.

Like the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, machines have replaced most of the manual work and improved production efficiency; The advent of the AI era has reduced repetitive, low-value mental work, and may improve the efficiency of innovation.

Starting from the "Mall Cup", Yiwu will continue to try AI innovation in the future and explore new possibilities for industrial growth.

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