He Opens Up New Possibilities for Chinese Design to the Asia-Pacific with AI-Created Pop Toys

【Editor's note】Guangdong's industries show robust momentum in transformation and upgrading, with many young entrepreneurs taking on the responsibilities of carrying forward the legacy and driving innovation. As part of the youth program "GenZ Pop Quiz" by SFC's International Communication Centre, the "Guangdong's Emerging Brand" short video series interviews representative young entrepreneurs in Guangdong, highlighting their adventurous spirit, innovative drive and hands-on leadership.

In the past, getting an idea from a flash of inspiration to a finished product meant countless sleepless nights and endless rounds of revisions for designers. The cycle was long, the costs were high, and it was simply out of reach for ordinary people. Now, a young team in Shenzhen has turned that entire notion on its head. Just type in a few lines of text, and their proprietary AI model can automatically analyze cultural contexts and generate design blueprints—freeing designers from tedious execution.

The young entrepreneur behind it all is Li Jiaxiang, a graduate of Tsinghua University's Department of Industrial Design. After graduation, he dove straight into the AI arena and co-founded ADI with his Tsinghua partners. From Beijing's Central Axis to Asia-Pacific cultural icons, they are using AI to dramatically shorten the cycle of design validation and production, while truly making creativity accessible to everyone.

This year is the APEC China Year. Last month, Li Jiaxiang attended the APEC Tech for Good Workshop. In his view, AI is not about replacing designers—it's about liberating creativity from repetitive work and allowing Chinese design, with AI as its ally, to step onto the broader Asia-Pacific stage.

And this is just the beginning. ADI is making China's manufacturing capabilities accessible for AI to tap into, so that anyone in the world with a creative idea can easily create designs based on their local culture and style and link up with manufacturers to turn their ideas into real products. In this episode of GenZ Pop Quiz, see how this Tsinghua trailblazer is using AI design models to show the world new possibilities in Chinese design.

Chief Producer: Zhao Haijian

Supervising Producer: Huang Yanshu

Content Producers: Huang Zihao, Wu Wanjie

Poster Design: Lin Huang

Overseas Operations Supervising Producer: Huang Yanshu

Overseas Content Coordinator: Huang Zihao

Overseas Operations Editors: Zhuang Huan, Wu Wanjie, Long Lihua, Zheng Quanyi

Produced by: Southern Finance Media Corp.

(Special Thanks to the Publicity Department of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, the Nanshan District Bureau of Science, Technology and Innovation, and the Research Institute of Tsinghua University in Shenzhen)