DingTalk CEO Chen Hang: Companies that still write documents every day are “a thing of the past”

The claim

It has been reported that Chen Hang (陈航), founder and CEO of DingTalk (钉钉), said at the China Entrepreneur magazine’s 18th Business Mulan Conference in Anji, Zhejiang, that any company “that still has people writing documents every day and prides itself on doing so… is definitely a thing of the past.” DingTalk is an Alibaba-backed enterprise communication and collaboration platform widely used by Chinese companies and schools.

What he said DingTalk does

Chen reportedly said his company of about 1,400–1,500 people has a strict no-document policy: “If I see that this document is written by a human, I will certainly criticize it.” Meetings are not to have human note-taking. Instead, staff are told to use whiteboards, take a photo when discussion ends, and let AI automatically analyse speech and images to produce meeting minutes and follow-ups. “The era of writing documents is over,” he reportedly added, saying the era when writing in Microsoft Office was impressive has ended.

Why it matters

The comments underline a fast-moving trend in China’s enterprise tech sector: aggressive adoption of generative AI to automate routine knowledge work and reshape workplace practices. How practical and scalable is a “no-documents” policy? That remains to be seen — but the pitch is clear: replace manual capture and formatting with automated extraction and tracking.

Context and implications

This shift comes as Chinese firms accelerate AI deployment amid intense domestic competition and international technology frictions, including export controls on advanced chips and software that have prompted greater focus on local AI stacks. It has been reported that such moves promise productivity gains, but they also raise questions about data governance, employee surveillance and regulatory oversight — issues Beijing has been addressing through tighter rules on algorithms and data security.