AI Isn’t Your Rival – The Real Competition is Human
Ant Group’s Chief Technology Officer, Dr. He Zhengyu, has issued a clear warning: the threat isn’t artificial intelligence itself, but the people who master it faster than you. He urges professionals and businesses to embrace AI as a co-creation tool or risk being left behind.
Key Takeaways
- The real competition is between people mastering AI, not against AI itself.
- Ant Group is focusing “200 per cent” on AI, especially Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
- Humans maintain an edge in adaptability, while AI requires massive retraining for new contexts.
- Companies should start with simple AI subscriptions and learn through practical use.
The Real Competition is Human
Speaking at a Singapore employers’ summit, Dr. He compared AI adoption to the early days of Google search. “Those who refused to use the search engine did not beat the system – they simply fell behind,” he told 300 attendees. “Don’t see AI as an opponent that will replace you. Otherwise, you will lose the competition – not against AI, but the people who actually master AI.”
Ant Group’s AI Focus and AGI Ambitions
Dr. He leads his team at the Chinese fintech giant to “focus 200 per cent on AI,” particularly on artificial general intelligence (AGI) – the hypothetical next frontier where AI could learn and reason across domains like humans. While Ant Group had explored foundational models before ChatGPT’s popularity, Dr. He admitted they initially underestimated generative AI’s impact. However, he believes it’s “never too late to join the game.”
From Child Prodigy to AI Evangelist
The 40-year-old CTO’s journey reflects his adaptability philosophy. A mathematics prodigy who entered university at 15, Dr. He pursued engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology. After a rebellious phase where he considered design school, he excelled academically, earning a PhD from Georgia Tech and working at Google before Ant Group recruited him with a “pretty good offer.”
His return to China brought reverse culture shock, particularly the “996 culture” (9am-9pm, six days weekly). However, he came to appreciate that without such disciplined workers, China’s tech firms wouldn’t have achieved rapid progress.
Talent Development and AI Adoption
As Ant Group’s AI evangelist, Dr. He has interviewed about 100 global candidates recently. He believes true tech companies must cultivate talent internally, not just hire it. “It’s about whether we can train a top scientist or research engineer ourselves,” he said, citing Google’s Nobel laureate cultivation as inspiration.
At Ant Group, all staff – from engineers to HR – access “the best AI tools” with high adoption rates. Acknowledging AI can produce buggy code and deepfakes, his team developed AI tools to detect these issues. “We are using the technology on both sides… using AI to fight AI.”
Co-Creation, Not Replacement
Dr. He dismisses fears of mass job replacement, noting truck drivers weren’t replaced by autonomous vehicles because they perform multiple tasks software cannot. “For each profession, certain parts can be automated, but not all,” he explained.
His advice: treat AI as a co-founder. “AI and you are the two co-founders of a company. Everything should be signed off by all founders, not just one.” He uses AI for spelling and phrasing as a non-native English speaker but doesn’t let it decide his points.
Humans maintain adaptability advantages, he stressed. “When you go to a different country, you adapt in one week. But AI cannot. It needs massive retraining.”
Practical Advice for AI Adoption
For education, Dr. He suggests designing systems that harness AI for productivity rather than restricting it. For hesitant companies, his advice is straightforward: “Just buy a subscription plan, start using it and learn by doing.”
Ant Group’s decade-long focus is building digital infrastructure for the service economy using “reliable, compliant and inclusive AI.” Their AI-powered healthcare app AQ already reached 10 million users in three months, representing just “the tip of the iceberg” of AI’s potential to meet human needs at lower costs.
