China has rolled out guidelines on adapting to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) to promote employment-friendly development, aiming to harness the technology to create jobs, improve employment quality and stimulate entrepreneurship while mitigating job displacement caused by AI applications.

The guidelines, issued by the General Office of the State Council, set out 18 tasks in six areas, including boosting AI's job-creation potential, making AI adoption more employment-friendly, improving workers' digital skills, enhancing employment services, strengthening labor and social security protections, and monitoring and addressing employment risks.

The guidelines call for expanding employment opportunities in emerging fields, helping micro, small and medium-sized enterprises stabilize and expand employment, fostering new forms of employment and entrepreneurship in the AI sector, and developing new AI-related occupations.

The guidelines urge efforts to tap AI's job-creation potential in traditional sectors, mitigate job displacement caused by AI applications, and establish a mechanism to assess employment risks associated with AI adoption.

The guidelines emphasize improving the framework for protecting workers' rights in human-machine collaboration, strengthening social security for people in flexible employment and those in new forms of employment, and refining income distribution mechanisms to adapt to advances in AI.

The guidelines outline coordinated efforts to cultivate innovative AI talent and implement specialized AI training programs. They also propose using AI to support the implementation of employment policies and make employment services more intelligent, while increasing support for workers transitioning to new jobs.

Further measures include strengthening monitoring and early warning of employment risks associated with AI applications, deepening research into their impact on employment, and improving mechanisms for responding to such risks.

The guidelines come as AI adoption expands across China's economy. The country's core AI industry was valued at more than 1.2 trillion yuan (about 178.62 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, with more than 6,200 AI companies operating nationwide, according to official figures. By the end of 2025, more than 30 percent of manufacturing enterprises with annual main business revenue of at least 20 million yuan had adopted AI technologies.

A five-year plan for the employment-first strategy highlights promoting employment alongside AI advancements as a key task. It calls for creating new jobs through AI applications and unlocking employment potential in traditional industries.

AI is already reshaping China's economy and transforming its labor market, with demand growing for workers equipped with specialized technical skills.

According to Maimai, a networking and recruitment platform, the number of new AI-related job postings in the new economy on the platform rose 789.47 percent year on year from January to July. Online job-seeking platform Zhaopin also reported particularly strong demand for AI engineers, including those working in automotive manufacturing and intelligent driving.