With the continuous development of AI technology, its influence has gradually spread from first-tier cities to lower-tier cities and county areas. This article discusses the application status and challenges of AI in the sinking market through multiple real-world cases.
Wen Da, a safety engineer in Quzhou, has just received a new offer from Huzhou. In addition to joy, there is trouble. The two cities are more than 300 kilometers apart, and moving across the city is the primary problem. The first thing to consider is definitely the cost.
In Wenda’s past experience, it is more affordable to send heavy goods by Deppon or Postal Logistics. Swiping your phone, a flash of thought, maybe you can ask AI if there are any good suggestions?
The problem was entered into DeepSeek, and sure enough, there was a new solution, giving different moving platforms and solutions. Since the popularity of DeepSeek during the Spring Festival, Wenda has used this AI software from time to time. After considering factors such as shipping costs, service quality, and user reputation, he finally chose a solution given by DeepSeek.
On Saturday afternoon, Wenda handed over his luggage to the logistics company and arrived in Huzhou by high-speed rail the next day, and his luggage landed almost at the same time as him.
At that moment, he was a little in a trance, AI is really already profoundly affecting our real world, and it is a small city like Quzhou and Huzhou.
Wenda is not an isolated case. Ordinary people living in lower-tier cities or counties use AI to change homework, create music, heal themselves, learn agricultural knowledge, and even try “Is DeepSeek stock trading reliable?”
The butterfly effect produced by AI fanning wings may be coerced into it before people have time to recognize it.
01.AI butterfly effect in the sinking market
Many people can’t tell when they started to have the awareness of using AI to solve problems or needs.
Guo Kai, 34, runs a design company called Yanggu Culture in Changzhi City, Shanxi Province, and his daily business includes graphic design, interior landscape, space design, video production, etc. After DeepSeek became popular, he began to seriously think about how AI can be deeply integrated with the design business. One of the earliest assignments he handed over was that he used AI to create a city-themed propaganda song for Changzhi.
How can product managers do a good job in B-end digitalization?
All walks of life have taken advantage of the ride-hail of digital transformation and achieved the rapid development of the industry. Since B-end products are products that provide services for enterprises, how should enterprises ride the digital ride?
View details >
Although he has not systematically learned music, and there are very few people around him talking about AI, Guo Kai told Newberry daybreak that he still insists on implementing his ideas, “hoping to use new technologies to highlight the company’s brand image and help the development of his hometown.”
This is how “Good Morning Changzhi” came about, it may not be wide enough, its influence is limited, and there is even a bit of self-entertainment in it, but it is a small cut of a small city in Shanxi trying to keep the same frequency as cutting-edge technology.
Xiao Ye, a high school physics teacher at an educational institution in Luoyang, found herself a free AI assistant.
He told Newberry Daybreak about his daily work: the company has expanded its enrollment scale this year, and he is responsible for more than 50 students alone, writing lesson plans, giving mock questions, analyzing test papers for students, and answering questions.
With the idea of trying, Xiao Ye made the students’ test papers into PDFs, uploaded them to Tencent Yuanbao, analyzed the wrong questions, found out the problems of the students, and gave solutions. To his surprise, the output of ingots has a certain value and can reduce his workload.
After continuing to use it for a period of time, Xiao Ye found that in addition to doing test paper analysis, Yuanbao can also generate high school physics simulation questions, which is not bad.
Then he began to figure out a method: write the syllabus with DeepSeek, and then generate PPT in Kimi, which is more effective. With a little modification and improvement, it can be used in actual work.
At present, more than two-thirds of the teachers in Xiao Ye’s team are using AI to improve their work efficiency, but everyone’s needs are different, and the application habits are also different.
In addition to seeing AI as a productivity improvement tool, young people in lower-tier cities have even begun to use AI for self-healing.
Xiao Yue, 26 years old this year, returned to work in her hometown of Zaozhuang as soon as she graduated from her bachelor’s degree. When she encounters a double dilemma of work and relationships, she falls into an emotional black hole.
She once plucked up the courage to confide in her family and friends, but she always received feedback that she was “thinking too much” and “thinking too much”. This frustration of not being understood by others added to her psychological pressure. She thought of seeking help from a counselor, but was dissuaded by the high cost of counseling.
By chance, she saw someone on Xiaohongshu using AI applications such as DeepSeek and Doubao for psychological counseling. Xiaohongshu’s notes on AI emotional companionship and psychological counseling have exceeded 100,000. The free and easy-to-use reviews drove her to download these software as well.
After entering the opening instructions shared by netizens and activating the AI’s “psychiatrist” personality, Xiaoyue completely released her confusion and emotions for the first time, and spending half an hour chatting with AI before going to bed became the norm.
She told Newberry daybreak, “AI can really empathize with me better than everyone around me, and it won’t dislike my tears, let alone think I’m impatient.” After a while, she even felt that her inner order was being restored little by little.
These examples that we have captured are converging into a new technological trend in lower-tier cities.
02. From the first line to the low line
At the end of 2022, ChatGPT exploded around the world after its birth, and generative AI entered people’s field of vision.
Since then, domestic AI native applications, as well as services that graft AI functions from existing APPs, have continued to target users. Among them, DeepSeek, Doubao, Yuanbao, Kimi, Wen Xiaoyan and other users rank in the forefront.
According to the QuestMobile report, in the first quarter of 2025, the top three domestic AI application downloads were DeepSeek, Doubao and Yuanbao, with 81.113 million, 27.238 million and 13.433 million respectively, and the corresponding monthly active users of these three applications were 187.021 million, 99.805 million and 23.583 million.
These products, except for Yuanbao for the sinking market, most of the products have not been promoted for the region in the process of user growth.
So how did users in lower-tier cities first come into contact with AI?
In a survey of limited users, Newberry daybreak found that users in lower-tier cities are mainly recommended by friends and influenced by product advertisements, and have heard or use apps such as DeepSeek, Doubao and Yuanbao.
Wenwen, a freshman majoring in Chinese language and literature at a university in Hengyang, told Newberry Daybreak that she began to use bean buns to identify flowers and plants and ask daily questions on the recommendation of her classmates. “For example, the source and author of a certain classical Chinese text, or what may be the reason for some aspect of physical discomfort.”
And the users of Yuanbao are familiar with it through advertising channels.
When DeepSeek was at its most popular, Xiao Ye, who lived in Luoyang, swiped Yuanbao’s “Nine-Square Grid” advertisement in the circle of friends, and then downloaded the application, which is now the first choice for using AI.
Not only Xiaoye, but many people have felt the offensive of ingots. From various Tencent products, a variety of external apps, and WeChat search and other channels, Yuanbao advertisements are frequently seen.
According to AppGrowing data, in the first quarter of 2025, Tencent invested 1.4 billion yuan in advertising expenses for Yuanbao, an increase of more than ten times compared with the 110 million yuan invested in the fourth quarter of 2024.
In addition, Tencent has also launched a series of plans for “Yuanbao Goes to the Countryside”, the most eye-catching is to paint the walls in the countryside. In April this year, Tencent also launched the “First AI Tool Class for Villagers” in Zijin County, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province, using the previous “village-level service platform” to help villagers learn to use AI tools such as AI agents “Xiaogeng” and Yuanbao in mini programs.
Tencent’s relevant team staff told Newberry daybreak, “The action of brushing the wall is only to enrich the usage scenarios of Tencent Yuanbao and establish awareness of AI tools in more circles. The purpose is not simply to promote, but to allow more users to catch up with this wave of AI tools and experience the convenience brought by new technologies.”
As a result of the smashing traffic, Yuanbao ranked first in downloads on the Apple App Store in early March, and currently ranks third in domestic AI applications in terms of downloads and monthly active users.
ByteDance and Dark Side of the Moon, which were still large investors last year, significantly reduced their investment in Doubao and Kimi in the first quarter of this year. According to AppGrowing data, in terms of amount, compared with Tencent’s 1.4 billion yuan, the two companies are only 138 million yuan and 150 million yuan respectively.
03.AI sinking has a long way to go
The AI trend is making waves everywhere, but its impact in the sinking market is still very limited.
It has been launched for more than ten days, and the city-themed propaganda song “Good Morning Changzhi” has failed to trigger a communication boom in Changzhi, and the market feedback is slightly flat. Guo Kai himself felt that the song did not achieve the desired effect: some lyrics were not coherent and logically poor, and could not fully achieve the expected emotional transmission. Because of the use of foreign AI production tools, the problem of external network data also leads to insufficient pronunciation accuracy.
As a teacher, Xiao Ye feels deeper, and the accuracy of AI analysis of test papers cannot be compared with others, and some questions and knowledge points will be analyzed incorrectly. If you choose the answer it generates, you will have to do a lot of revision work, which also consumes time. “So when I have a lot of energy, I do it more by myself.”
This is actually due to his hidden psychological burden, if the wrong answers generated by AI are accidentally seen by students or parents, it will cause doubts and dissatisfaction with his teaching level. “I want AI to empower me, not cause me trouble.”
And those AI tools that so-called go deep into the field have a bigger gap between reality and ideals.
For example, it has been previously reported that farmers use AI to sell fruits: identify fruit ripeness based on AI, generate product live speech, and recommend user groups to buy. It sounds great, but in fact, AI frequently makes errors in actual operation, and fails to accurately recommend user groups, resulting in various “overturns”, which affects the original normal fruit sales.
Compared with the problem that AI solves problems is not ideal, there are still doubts about the uselessness of AI in reality.
Although many young people believe that AI can provide emotional support and relieve anxiety, even more useful than many psychological counselors, there are many voices against it. In Wenda and Xiaoye’s eyes, only bored people will use AI to do such things, and they are more inclined to use exercise, watch videos and browse social media to relieve their emotions.
Of course, more importantly, users in lower-tier cities or sinking markets still have very limited awareness of AI. A significant proportion of people, such as the elderly, have never used AI.
In the interview survey of Newberry daybreak, more than 70% of users have never heard of AI application products, and a certain proportion of people have swiped Douyin advertisements or heard recommendations, but have not actually downloaded and used them.
Even people who have used AI applications are more limited to conversational products such as bean bags and ingots, and almost no more professional AI paintings, AI videos, or AI office applications.
In the eyes of technological innovators or geeks, AI seems to have shouldered a mission of technological equality from its birth, handing over those jobs that are not conducive to human health, repetitive, and boring to AI, so that we can better enjoy life or engage in higher-quality innovation.
The reality is that these have little to do with most people in the real world.
