Meituan says AI will dwarf the internet — CEO Wang Xing pushes real-world data as strategic base

AI “bigger than the internet,” Meituan argues

It has been reported that at Meituan (美团)’s 2026 management communication meeting, CEO Wang Xing said AI’s impact will far exceed that of the internet and mobile internet. “AI brought changes will be much larger than the whole internet,” Wang said, using a vivid analogy: while mobile internet and internet are like different flowers, AI compared with the internet is “like a monkey versus a flower” — a difference in kind, not just degree. Reportedly he added that AI agents will disrupt work much more than ChatGPT-style chatbots did.

Why physical-world data matters

Wang argued that for a services platform like Meituan (a Chinese local-life giant covering food delivery, travel and local services), digitalizing the physical world is the essential underpinning for practical AI. “Even if you make Einstein your assistant to book a restaurant, he still won’t know if there are seats,” Wang said — not a question of intelligence but of timely, ground-truth information. Meituan plans to lean on this “real information infrastructure” to make AI useful in day-to-day commerce and logistics.

Meituan’s moves and the strategic context

Meituan has already rolled out multiple AI applications and in-house large models, and it announced in 2025 that it would increase investment in nationwide local-life information infrastructure; during this year’s Lunar New Year the company launched an AI search product called “Wen XiaoTuan” (问小团). In the broader geopolitical backdrop — with growing global competition in AI and Western export controls on advanced chips and tools — domestic players in China are under pressure to build integrated stacks combining models, data and edge capabilities.

What this means for users and businesses

Wang urged teams to embrace AI rather than rely only on seasoned practices, saying young people’s “odd” ideas will be an engine for innovation. For Western readers unfamiliar with China’s tech landscape: platforms like Meituan sit at the intersection of online services and physical commerce, so their success with AI will depend as much on access to up‑to‑date local data and operations as on model sophistication. The question now is whether platforms can scale that data infrastructure rapidly enough to realize the transformative promise Wang foresees.