On September 22, the 2026 Hubei Provincial On-Site Conference on Digitalization and AI Innovation Application in the Textile and Apparel Industry was held in Xishui, Huanggang. Organized by Hubei's economic and information technology system, the conference focused on digital empowerment, AI innovation, and intelligent manufacturing quality improvement. More than 140 representatives from universities, AI companies, financial institutions, and other sectors attended, aiming to promote digital transformation cases, build a digital centralized procurement empowerment platform, and advance coordination among technology, talent, capital, and the supply chain.

Chen Qi, Party Leadership Group Member and Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, attended and delivered a speech. He stated that textile and apparel is a traditional pillar industry with competitive advantages in Hubei and is currently at a critical stage of iterative upgrading and model innovation; many enterprises in the province have already pioneered intelligent transformation and digital transition, forming a number of benchmarks for quality improvement and efficiency gains.

Regarding the next steps, Chen Qi proposed breaking away from reliance on traditional manufacturing paths: leading enterprises should play the role of "vanguard geese," driving coordinated iteration across upstream and downstream; small and medium-sized enterprises should seek breakthroughs and form chains from individual points. At the same time, they should benchmark against advanced practices, shore up shortcomings, continuously explore and cultivate intelligent workshops and typical digital application scenarios, form transformation models that are replicable, easy to promote, and cost-controllable, and use on-site service platforms to facilitate supply-demand matching and implementation.

At the conference, teams from Donghua University, Wuhan Textile University, Falang Fashion (Huanggang) Co., Ltd., Jingzhou Hongye Knitwear & Apparel Co., Ltd., Dada Simbada (Guangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Chuantian Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., and other university teams, leading enterprises, and digital service providers shared practical experience and transformation paths around intelligent production transformation, digital technology R&D, supply chain collaboration, flexible quick-response intelligent manufacturing, and AI scenario implementation.

Wuhan Changjiang Yunshang Supply Chain Co., Ltd. integrated enterprise, technology, and platform resources and released the Hubei Province textile and apparel "digital centralized procurement" inclusion plan. A total of 15 digital and intelligent transformation software and hardware service providers were included on site, initially establishing a digital centralized procurement mechanism.

At the event, Donghua University, Wuhan Textile University, and Wuhan Yangtze International Trade Group Co., Ltd., among other school-enterprise partners, jointly launched preparations for the Hubei Province Textile and Apparel Digitalization Promotion Center. It will subsequently undertake technology promotion, case cultivation, talent training, supply-demand matching, and policy implementation, aiming to clear bottlenecks in the industry's digital transformation and drive the province's textile and apparel industry from isolated point transformations to systemic upgrading.

From an industry perspective, this conference reflects that the digital transformation of the textile and apparel industry is advancing from pilot projects at individual enterprises toward systemic paths such as centralized procurement mechanisms and school-enterprise co-built platforms, which will help small and medium-sized enterprises lower transformation thresholds and accelerate the pace of transformation.

Source: Hubei Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology · Originally published on 2026-09-23