As DeepSeek Expands, China’s Cities Roll Out ‘AI Public Servants’
After tech firms moved quickly to adopt DeepSeek, local governments across China are now rolling out the open-source AI platform, making waves for rivaling OpenAI and Google, to automate public services.
From Hohhot in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Guangzhou in the southern Guangdong province, cities across China are rolling out DeepSeek-powered AI within cloud platforms to automate governance, handling everything from administrative paperwork to public service requests.
On Feb. 16, southern tech hub Shenzhen was among the latest cities to integrate DeepSeek, launching AI-powered services across all districts and departments. In the city’s Futian District, 70 AI-driven “public servants” now handle 11 major administrative categories.
Trained for specialized tasks and tailored to individual departments, these AI systems now manage 240 administrative processes, including document processing, civil services, emergency response, and investment promotion.
For instance, when drafting administrative penalties, the system generates a draft within seconds after uploading case discussion records. According to district reports, customized document preparation now takes minutes instead of five days, while the accuracy rate for format corrections has surpassed 95%, cutting auditing time by 90%.
Public service response times have also improved, with request categorization accuracy rising from 70% to 95%. The district’s AI-powered investment assistant has increased company selection efficiency by 30%.
“By combining nearly a decade’s worth of 120 million data points with our computing platform, we can achieve greater efficiency,” Gao Zeng, a Futian District official, told domestic media. He added that with DeepSeek, labor arbitration documents can now be generated in just one second with a single click.
While AI is playing a growing role in government work, officials say it is intended to assist, not replace, human workers — despite referring to such systems as “employees.” Futian’s regulatory framework requires each AI system to be monitored by a designated human supervisor to prevent errors and ensure compliance with ethical standards.
“The guardian of the AI-powered employee is responsible for overseeing its operation, and if any issues arise, the guardian is held accountable,” said Gao.
Experts say AI will play an increasing role in government services, with cost-efficient models like DeepSeek driving wider adoption.
“Government services should deliver the highest quality at the lowest cost,” said Wu Yin, an economics professor at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. “DeepSeek has lowered costs to a ‘cost inflection point,’ making AI integration in public services more accessible.”
Editor: Apurva.
(Header image: Yuichiro Chino/Getty Creative/VCG)
