Millions of Chinese Applicants Turn to AI for Strategy...Surge in Big Tech Usage

There are 12.9 million students taking this year's Chinese university entrance exam, the Gaokao. Immediately after the Gaokao scores were released late last month, the demand for AI related to application strategies surged due to the burden on examinees and parents to process complex admissions information.

According to reports by Yonhap News and the SCMP, Alibaba revealed that as of the end of June, over 14 million users had utilized its AI assistant Qwen's college application agent. Baidu reported that approximately 15 million people used its AI college application assistant, while Tencent's chatbot Yuanbao stated it answered about 80 million queries related to college entrance.

As AI lowers the barriers to entry in the admissions consulting market, changes are appearing in the existing high-price service market. In China, it has been customary for the middle class to hire professional consultants to devise their children's application strategies. Zhang Qi, a parent from a low-income background, said, "I couldn't help my child due to making a living, but thanks to AI, I was able to grasp information on universities nationwide and know the possibility of application.

The consulting market, which was worth 1 billion yuan (approximately 220 billion won) last year, was projected to grow to 1.2 billion yuan by 2027. However, with the rise of AI, the market structure is shifting as existing high-priced products face sluggish sales or lower prices by more than 10,000 yuan.

Experts pointed out that while AI contributes to reducing the gap in access to information, there are limitations to completely resolving existing admission inequalities as the quality of results may vary depending on utilization capabilities, such as prompt writing skills.