International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released the report “China’s AI-enabled Industrial Quality Inspection Solutions Market Share, 2021”. According to the report, the overall market size of industrial quality inspection solutions (excluding hardware) in 2021 reached $210 million, an increase of nearly 48.4% from 2020.

Market overview

AI industrial quality inspection field scene fragmentation has led to continuous fragmentation of the market, and most manufacturers are gradually looking for their own advantages in the segmentation of industry scenarios. In 2021, while achieving large-scale replication in its own key markets, it began to expand its layout to more scene fields. Many AI quality inspection scenarios in the four major industries of 3C, automotive, consumer goods and raw materials have achieved large-scale replication, becoming the main driving force for market development.

In this study, the AI-enabled industrial quality inspection defined by IDC uses the visual inspection technology based on AI technology such as deep learning to carry out visual inspection of product images in the industrial production process, thereby helping to find and eliminate defects.

The large-scale replication of AI quality inspection scenarios has driven the rapid development of the market. In terms of product supply, the solution is still the product form that most manufacturers focus on providing, which is manifested in various customized testing systems and integrated equipment. The solution is also best suited to the needs of customers in the industrial field, and in the medium term, it is still the main product form of future research and development.

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Market pattern

At present, the main manufacturers in the AI-enabled industrial quality inspection solution market include head cloud service providers and AI quality inspection innovation enterprises. By 2021, the market share of the five major manufacturers reached 44.3%, mainly concentrated in Baidu Intelligent Cloud, Innovation Qizi, Tencent Cloud, Huawei, Achu Technology and other manufacturers. In the medium and long term, with the gradual differentiation of the market and the improvement of application maturity, potential competition will lead to changes in the pattern of manufacturers, some manufacturers will expand their advantages, and new manufacturers will gradually join.

The market share of the major Chinese AI-enabled industrial quality inspection solutions (software and services only) vendors in 2021 is shown below:

Analyst view

Cheng Yin, senior analyst of AI at IDC China, said: “In 2021, the industrial quality inspection solution market has achieved large-scale replication and accelerated development. In the future, new technology suppliers can provide lightweight differentiated products or services according to their own advantages, and choose the areas where there are market opportunities such as automotive vehicles and parts, consumer goods and raw materials represented by chemical fiber and steel for layout. Continue to strengthen the understanding and precipitation of industrial scenarios through ecological cooperation, provide high-quality data annotation/analysis products and services, solve the challenges in data collection, and improve the application effect of AI quality inspection.”