SHENZHEN-BASED tech giant Tencent said it will channel more resources to industries seeking deeper business integration with Internet technologies as part of its efforts to bank on a digitally industrialized future.

The Shenzhen firm will delve into smart services for the retail, health, education, transport, manufacturing and urban development sectors, Dowson Tong, senior executive vice president with Tencent, said Thursday at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Tencent Global Partner Conference in Nanjing.

The two-day event, centering on openness and inter-growth, is the company’s first large-scale event since it announced a landmark strategic organizational upgrade in late September.

The 20-year-old company has integrated its original seven business groups into six, forming two new business groups: cloud and smart industries, and platform and content.

“The Internet sector is in a new phase as users want not only content, but also products and services to be customized and of high quality,” Tong said.

China has been promoting its “Internet Plus” initiative since 2015, aiming to upgrade the country’s traditional sectors through Internet technology applications.

Tencent has stepped up efforts in recent years to utilize technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to aid traditional sectors to offer smarter services. Tencent Miying, an AI-aided medical imaging and AI-aided diagnosis tool, has helped doctors read more than 100 million medical images for over 900,000 patients, according to Tong.

The company will leverage the technological advances brought by its AI, online security and quantum computing labs to empower other industries, Tong said. (Xinhua)