Geely Automotive Research Institute. [Photo/Yongpai app]

Geely is transforming automotive manufacturing in China by integrating AI directly into its engineering workflow.

At its research institute in Ningbo's Qianwan New Area, the automaker has deployed AI-powered agents that actively participate in coding, system integration, and testing tasks. Rather than serving as auxiliary tools, these systems are integrated into day-to-day development teams, creating hybrid human-AI engineering units. The impact has been significant: overall software R&D efficiency has increased by about 30 percent, while coding tasks have accelerated by roughly 50 percent.

The shift reflects the growing complexity of modern vehicles, which depend on thousands of interconnected software modules. By offloading repetitive and computational tasks to AI systems, engineers can focus more on architecture, optimization, and validation, while maintaining faster iteration cycles across projects.

Geely has already deployed this model across embedded systems, cloud-based services, and intelligent cockpit development. The company has built 64 specialized AI agents to support different stages of the workflow, generating an estimated 160 million yuan ($23 million) in value gains.

AI is also extending beyond engineering productivity into vehicle intelligence itself. In Geely's next-generation smart cockpit, an advanced assistant known as EVA can interpret vague or incomplete user instructions, plan responses, and execute actions in real time.

On the testing side, the company's AI systems can simulate more than 1,000 driving scenarios per second, including extreme weather and complex traffic conditions. So far, more than 25 million virtual test cases have been generated, accelerating the development of autonomous driving functions such as driverless pickup and automated vehicle dispatch.

Geely is also applying this AI-driven approach beyond its own operations, working with suppliers in Ningbo to support the digital transformation of hundreds of parts manufacturers through an integrated industrial platform that combines data, tools, and AI capabilities.