Shenzhen’s Longgang District has turned a local commercial corridor into a test case for AI service delivery. People’s Daily reported on September 5 that the district opened what local authorities describe as China’s first AI Service Street on September 4, linking research and development, application scenarios, industrial support, and services for businesses and residents.
The project is part of Longgang’s district-wide All in AI strategy. Its immediate significance lies less in the street itself than in the service model around it. Longgang wants companies and individuals to have a place to seek AI workflow design, knowledge-base construction, lightweight application development, and implementation support, rather than treating AI only as a product bought from a remote cloud platform.
The district has also launched Long Ai Qi, its eighth AI service brand. Local authorities say the service will provide dedicated intelligent agents to the district’s 620,000 market entities for tasks including policy applications, market expansion, and supply-chain connections. That is an ambitious scale claim, and it refers to intended service availability, not evidence that hundreds of thousands of companies are already active users.
Longgang Is Packaging AI as a Local Business Service
The new street is built on existing Longgang projects, including Robot Avenue, Robot Theater, a robot 6S store, and an AI 6S store. The district says it has an industrial chain spanning chip design, algorithms, hardware manufacturing, and commercial applications. This existing base matters because an AI service center needs more than software demonstrations. It needs companies that can integrate tools, supply equipment, and connect applications with customers.
The term 6S store borrows from the service concept used in other industries, but Longgang is applying it to AI. The local report describes the AI 6S store as a place offering integrated services for personal, household, enterprise, and organizational users. It aims to move from product displays to diagnostic services, customized deployment, and ongoing assistance.
Local officials and reports call it China’s first AI Service Street and the world’s first AI 6S store. Those are Longgang and local-media descriptions, and the sources do not provide an independent global comparison. The more important point is that the district is trying to make AI adoption a local service business. A manufacturer may need an industrial tool, a small retailer may need a workflow assistant, and an individual user may need a learning or lifestyle application. The same street is intended to serve all three.
Longgang’s approach follows a wider Shenzhen pattern. EastFrontier reported in July on Shenzhen’s robot waiters and delivery drones, showing how the city’s hardware base supports visible service applications. The AI Service Street shifts the emphasis toward adoption support, trying to turn a concentration of hardware and software suppliers into a more accessible market for smaller users.
Long Ai Qi Extends Agents to 620,000 Market Entities
The most concrete feature announced alongside the street is Long Ai Qi. The district says the intelligent-agent service is aimed at all 620,000 registered market entities in Longgang. Its listed uses are policy-declaration support, market development, and supply-chain matching.
Such services can be valuable if they connect to usable data and deliver accurate recommendations. A company applying for a subsidy, for example, needs current eligibility information and clear documentation. A business looking for suppliers needs reliable records and a way to judge quality, price, and delivery capability. An agent can speed up the first steps, but it cannot replace the verification, legal review, or commercial negotiation that many decisions require.
The district’s claim is therefore best read as a deployment objective. The source does not state how many companies have activated Long Ai Qi, how the system handles commercial data, or how it measures the quality of its recommendations. It also does not provide pricing, computing arrangements, or a list of technology providers behind the platform.
Longgang has organized eight Long Dazi brands covering industry, education, health care, urban governance, low-altitude applications, homes, culture and tourism, and enterprise services. The portfolio shows the district’s effort to give each sector a recognizable AI entry point. A brand structure may make local services easier to market, but the real test will be whether the tools solve persistent operating problems instead of offering short demonstrations.
The launch has a close connection to Shenzhen’s broader effort to attract AI-related capital and companies. EastFrontier reported on September 2 that global investors were looking to Shenzhen’s AI and robotics market. Longgang’s street provides a local example of what those investors may evaluate: whether Chinese cities can turn policy targets, hardware capacity, and model development into repeatable AI services for many kinds of customers.
The Business Model Will Be Tested Beyond the Opening Ceremony
An AI service street can create visibility, foot traffic, and a central place for demonstrations. Sustained adoption will require other things. Businesses must be able to identify a useful task, choose a provider, integrate the system with their existing processes, and measure whether it saves time or produces revenue. Many small companies lack the technical staff to manage those steps on their own.
That is why Longgang is promoting AI service providers as a new occupation. The district sees a need for people and organizations that can translate a company’s business problem into an AI workflow, select tools, and support deployment. This layer is important because the gap between a capable model and a useful business process can be large.
The opening also demonstrates a local-government preference for broad accessibility. The street is meant to serve businesses and residents, while Long Ai Qi is targeted at a very large registered-business base. The model may help spread familiarity with AI, but it raises questions about service quality at scale. An agent that assists a small number of pilot businesses can receive intensive support. A service aimed at 620,000 entities needs robust data, clear boundaries, and systems for correcting errors.
Longgang’s existing infrastructure gives the project a stronger foundation than a standalone marketing event. Robot Avenue, hardware manufacturers, software teams, and service outlets can create a dense ecosystem. The service street can also make that ecosystem more visible to potential customers who do not know where to start.
The project will be judged by practical outcomes. If businesses use the agents to submit applications correctly, find partners, or build useful workflows, Longgang will have created a template for local AI adoption. If the street remains primarily a showroom, its value will be more symbolic. For now, the September 4 opening signals that Shenzhen’s AI strategy is moving from individual robots and products toward a visible infrastructure for service, deployment, and support.