China's first policy framework for AI agents.
On May 8, 2026, China's Cyberspace Administration, National Development and Reform Commission, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly released the "Implementation Opinions on the Standardized Application and Innovative Development of Intelligent Agents" — China's first policy framework specifically for Agentic AI. The document treats intelligent agents as a future digital infrastructure and governance object, recognizing they are fundamentally different from traditional chatbots due to capabilities like autonomous perception, long-term memory, tool use, cross-platform execution, and multi-agent coordination. The framework balances development with governance, emphasizing "safe and controllable, reliable and trustworthy" principles. Key provisions include: distinguishing decision boundaries (human-only decisions, user-authorized decisions, and autonomous agent decisions); preventing anthropomorphism and emotional dependency (especially for minors and elderly); proposing an "Intelligent Internet" with agent registration platforms, digital identities, and interoperability protocols (AIP, IPv6); and implementing a tiered, classification-based governance model where high-risk sectors (finance, healthcare, government, judiciary) face stricter filing, testing, and certification requirements. The document also promotes indigenous controllability (domestic chips, operating systems, open-source frameworks) and active participation in international standards-setting. The article includes a full English translation of the 33-scenario implementation plan covering scientific research, manufacturing, energy, transportation, finance, healthcare, education, government services, public safety, and urban governance.
https://www.geopolitechs.org/p/chinas-first-policy-framework-for
Implementation Opinions on the Standardized Application and Innovative Development of Intelligent Agents
Intelligent agents are intelligent systems possessing autonomous perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution capabilities, and represent an important form of artificial intelligence products and services. With the rapid development of next-generation AI technologies such as large-scale models, intelligent agents are accelerating their deep integration with cyberspace and the physical world, profoundly changing human production and lifestyles and social governance models. To implement the State Council's "Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ' Artificial Intelligence + ' Action Plan" and promote the standardized application and innovative development of intelligent agents, this implementation opinion is formulated .
I. Basic Principles
Guided by the goals of promoting technological innovation, enhancing governance capabilities , building an industrial ecosystem , and improving people's well-being, this initiative adheres to the principles of safety and controllability . It prioritizes the safety, reliability, and trustworthiness of intelligent agents as the bottom-line requirements for development, integrating these principles throughout the entire process of intelligent agent technology research and development, application deployment, and promotion, effectively preventing systemic risks . It maintains a standardized and orderly approach, adapting to the evolutionary patterns of intelligent agent technology , constructing a governance system that seamlessly integrates with existing policies and regulations , promotes industry self-regulation and autonomy, and clearly defines bottom lines and red lines , thus systematically advancing the application of intelligent agents. It insists on innovation- driven development , strengthening the linkage between theoretical, technological, and engineering innovation, systematically breaking through key intelligent agent technologies, improving the collaborative mechanism among government, industry, academia, research, and application, building an open and shared intelligent agent ecosystem, and enhancing industrial innovation vitality . Finally , it prioritizes application-driven development, focusing on practical needs such as scientific research, industrial development, boosting consumption, improving people's well-being, and social governance , leveraging the demonstrative effect of typical application scenarios , and proceeding gradually from easy to difficult, to promote the verification, iteration, and application of intelligent agent technology .
II . Solidify the Foundation for Development
Strengthening the technological foundation , improving the standards system, and lowering the barriers to R&D, adaptation, and application of intelligent agents will lay the foundation for enriching intelligent agent products and services.
(I) Improve the technical foundation
1. Strengthen fundamental technology research and development. Continuously improve the performance of general-purpose basic models, support the development of specialized models for specific industry segments, and form a model product matrix adapted to different scenarios and devices. Enhance the supply capacity of high-quality datasets for agent training and operation. Strengthen research on technologies such as agent task understanding, task planning, tool use, long-term memory, mutual recognition and interoperability, and group collaboration to improve the generalization ability of agents.
2. Improve the intelligent agent toolchain. Conduct research on the underlying framework of intelligent agents, accelerate the development of key components such as perception, memory, decision-making, interaction, and execution, and improve the toolchain for intelligent agent research and development, testing, deployment, and operation and maintenance. Develop security and governance tools such as adversarial example detection and behavior anomaly detection to enhance the ability to detect, intervene in, block, and recover from non-compliant behaviors of intelligent agents.
(ii) Establishing standard protocols
3. Establish an intelligent agent standard system. Formulate guiding documents for intelligent agent standardization , forming an intelligent agent standard framework. Systematically deploy standards for key technologies, important products, data exchange, application scenarios, quality evaluation, security assurance, and trusted authentication. Accelerate the development of fundamental standards for intelligent agents and software tools, application services, and hardware peripheral interfaces. Strengthen the promotion and application of key national and industry standards for intelligent agent interconnection, such as the Intelligent Agent Interconnection Protocol ( AIP ). Support the development of mandatory standards in fields such as healthcare, transportation, media, and public safety . Encourage enterprises to develop products and services in accordance with relevant standards to improve the standardization of intelligent agents. Actively participate in the development of international standards.
4. Develop and deploy the intelligent internet. Research and establish an intelligent internet architecture, explore the establishment of an intelligent agent registration platform, and provide services such as intelligent agent digital identity management, retrieval and discovery, and capability declaration. Support the query and management of information such as developers, deployment methods , interface protocols, and compliance certification . Enhance the collaborative capabilities of multiple intelligent agents, and research fundamental technologies such as intelligent agent identity identification, trusted interconnection, compliant payment, security protection , and conflict resolution . Leverage the advantages of Internet Protocol version 6 ( IPv6 ) technology to improve the end-to-end communication capabilities of intelligent agents. Explore the establishment of an intelligent internet monitoring indicator system.
III . Uphold the bottom line of safety
We must adhere to the principles of people-centeredness, intelligence for good , multi-party governance, and safety and stability , create an institutional environment that promotes standardized development and encourages innovation , and promote the healthy and orderly development of intelligent entities .
( a ) Clarify product standards
5. Improve policies, regulations, and ethical standards. Accelerate research on policies , regulations, and ethical standards related to intelligent agents , leveraging the content resources and review advantages of professional institutions to ensure that the behavior of intelligent agents complies with laws, regulations, and mainstream values. Prevent intelligent agents from using their data advantages and personalized technologies to spread harmful values or engage in algorithmic exploitation, and guard against risks such as addiction and emotional dependence among minors and the elderly. Ensure proper integration with existing systems for ethical review of artificial intelligence.
6. Define decision-making authority. While adhering to laws and regulations, respecting social morality and ethical norms , clarify the reasonable boundaries and required authority for various decision-making methods, such as decisions limited to the user , decisions requiring user authorization, and autonomous decisions by the intelligent agent . Ensure that users have the right to know and the final decision-making power regarding the intelligent agent's autonomous decisions , and that the intelligent agent's actions do not exceed the scope authorized by the user.
7. Strengthen behavioral control . Develop technologies such as rule embedding and behavior fencing to ensure that the behavior of intelligent agents in public places, private places, and special places is legal and compliant. Explore the use of technologies such as blockchain to establish verifiable and traceable mechanisms for intelligent agent behavior in important application scenarios to prevent major risks caused by improper behavior of intelligent agents.
(II) Preventing security risks
8. Enhance intrinsic security capabilities. Research security technologies such as intelligent agent data security, personal information protection, password protection , attack detection , access control, and behavior control to improve the security capabilities of intelligent agent systems and prevent security risks such as data poisoning, privacy leaks, algorithm tampering, system vulnerabilities , and operational instability . Research intelligent agent security detection technologies and explore the establishment of an intelligent agent security assessment system.
9. Strengthen supply chain security. Develop full-lifecycle security standards for intelligent agents , including development, deployment, application, and maintenance, and strengthen security management in areas such as model access, application programming interface (API) calls, and the use of extended tools. Explore the establishment of an information sharing and early warning mechanism for intelligent agent supply chain security , promptly issue risk alerts, and enhance security capabilities .
10. Mitigate application-related risks. Improve the routine risk identification, early warning, and intervention mechanisms for intelligent agents, strengthen human-machine collaborative review and interception capabilities, and prevent systemic security risks. Enhance the security management of intelligent agent applications to prevent them from being used for automated attacks, privacy violations, the generation and dissemination of false information, online fraud, and other illegal and criminal activities.
(III) Improve the governance system
11. Establish a categorized and tiered governance framework. Based on application scenarios and potential impacts, conduct tiered governance of intelligent agents prudently and steadily. For sensitive areas and key industries, the Cyberspace Administration, in conjunction with relevant industry regulatory authorities, will determine open scenarios and implement management measures such as registration, testing, and recall of problematic products in accordance with relevant laws , regulations , regulatory requirements, and security protection standards . For some low-risk areas such as daily life and entertainment, and routine office work, improve intelligent agent evaluation and testing tools, and achieve efficient governance through compliance self-testing, information reporting, distribution platform management, and industry self-regulation.
12. Improve the compliance service system. Strengthen the supply of professional services such as risk monitoring and early warning, testing and evaluation, consulting, and certification for intelligent agents, and guide the industry to actively develop intelligent agent monitoring tools. Conduct third-party evaluation services for intelligent agent functions, performance, quality, and compliance, promote the mutual recognition of certification and testing results, and provide users with references for selecting intelligent agents. Compile and publish a maturity report on intelligent agent technology and applications to provide references for industrial research and development.
( iv ) Strengthen industry self-regulation
13. Guide the industry to strengthen self-regulation. Encourage industry organizations and major enterprises to jointly formulate industry self - regulatory rules, clarifying detailed regulations on intelligent agent functional compliance, algorithm governance, intellectual property protection, and fair competition. Guide intelligent agent development platforms, distribution platforms, and service providers to establish fair and reasonable platform rules, user service agreements, and privacy policies, clarifying the rights and responsibilities of both supply and demand sides, and ensuring the healthy development of the industry. Strengthen public awareness education on the risks of intelligent agent applications to enhance users' security awareness.
14. Explore a credit rating mechanism. Guide industry organizations to establish a credit rating mechanism for intelligent agent market entities with voluntary participation. This mechanism will evaluate behaviors such as technology abuse, misleading consumption, false advertising, and concealment of defective information, and will impose penalties for dishonesty in accordance with laws and regulations . Encourage intelligent agent developers, development platforms, distribution platforms, and service providers to participate in credit rating to jointly create a favorable development environment.
IV . Strengthening Application-Driven Development
Actively and steadily promote the application of intelligent agents in typical scenarios, drive the optimization and upgrading of technologies and products , and explore the formation of replicable and scalable application models for intelligent agents.
(I) Scientific Research
15. Scientific Research and Exploration . Develop intelligent agents for theoretical deduction and simulation, and explore potential technological pathways. Strengthen the information association and integration capabilities and knowledge system construction capabilities of intelligent agents to enhance the discovery capabilities of natural sciences, philosophy, and social sciences research. Promote the integration of intelligent agents with scientific instruments and experimental platforms to achieve intelligentization of the entire process, including scheme design, experimental operation, data processing, and result analysis.
16. R&D Support . Develop intelligent software development agents to enhance the entire development process, including requirements analysis, architecture design, code generation, and testing. Promote the integration of intelligent agents with software such as Computer-Aided Design ( CAD ) and Computer-Aided Engineering ( CAE ) to provide functions such as design scheme generation, simulation verification, and parameter optimization.
(II) Industrial Development
17. Intelligent Manufacturing. Develop intelligent agents for production management to dynamically optimize production scheduling, resource allocation, and process connections , promoting the application of intelligent agents in the industrial internet field and improving the level of refined management in enterprises . Enhance the capabilities of intelligent agents in optimizing process parameters , detecting processing accuracy, and identifying product defects , promoting the integration of intelligent agents with CNC machine tools, industrial robots, and automated production lines to improve quality, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
18. Energy Resources. Develop intelligent agents for sensing environmental elements such as atmosphere, water, soil, and noise to enhance early warning capabilities for risks such as natural disasters and environmental pollution. Strengthen the full-cycle management capabilities of land and space resources based on intelligent agents. Achieve efficient exploration of energy, metal, and other mineral resources based on intelligent agents. Develop intelligent agents for power dispatching, electricity consumption monitoring, and power grid maintenance to improve the efficiency of power resource utilization.
19. Transportation . Develop intelligent agents for traffic safety supervision and emergency command and dispatch, and improve capabilities in identifying violations, providing early warnings of traffic infrastructure risks, monitoring key vehicles (ships), and responding quickly to accidents. Optimize the performance of intelligent agents for traffic monitoring and dispatch, develop intelligent agents for the management and control of transportation vehicles, and improve the efficiency of road networks, waterways, and airspace.
20. Agricultural Production. Develop intelligent agricultural service agents to provide services such as agricultural technical guidance, pest and disease diagnosis and control. Promote the application of intelligent agents in planting, breeding, and high-efficiency breeding to advance the intelligent transformation of agriculture. Promote the integration of intelligent agents with intelligent agricultural machinery, smart greenhouses, and agricultural service platforms to improve agricultural production efficiency.
21. Financial Services. Develop intelligent financial risk control systems to enhance risk identification capabilities in areas such as credit approval, transaction monitoring, and account security . Improve the anomaly detection and compliance audit functions of the intelligent systems to enhance capabilities in areas such as credit default prediction, credit card fraud interception, and anti-money laundering monitoring .
(III) Boosting consumption
22. Terminal Applications . Promote the application of intelligent agents in internet applications and services , optimizing the experience of online shopping, travel navigation, utility bill payment, and daily office work. Promote the collaborative development of intelligent agents with terminal devices such as mobile phones, computers, automobiles, home appliances, wearables, and consumer robots , enhancing their ability to complete tasks across applications and devices.
23. Cultural Tourism . Develop intelligent platforms for creating content in literature, music, painting, audiovisual media, and performing arts to promote the dissemination and promotion of excellent culture. Develop intelligent tourism service platforms such as intelligent navigation, multilingual translation, and services suitable for the elderly and disabled to improve the level of tourism services.
24. Commercial Services . Enhance the customer service capabilities of intelligent agents, providing 24/7 consultation, appointment, and after-sales services. Develop embodied intelligent agents for guidance, cleaning, warehousing, and distribution to improve the operational efficiency of commercial venues such as catering, retail, accommodation , and logistics. Explore the provision of low-cost housekeeping, elderly care, childcare, and disability assistance services through embodied intelligent agents.
(iv) People's well-being
25. Education and Teaching. Explore intelligent agents for courseware generation, homework grading, and student learning analysis to improve teacher efficiency. Develop personalized learning plans based on these intelligent agents , and improve functions such as intelligent guidance, Q&A support, and virtual teaching assistants. Support online education platforms in developing intelligent agents to provide lifelong learning services.
26. Healthcare . Enhance the performance of medical auxiliary intelligent agents such as medical image analysis, disease diagnosis reasoning, and customized treatment plan generation; explore intelligent agents for drug management, surgical scheduling, and medical record management to improve the efficiency of medical services. Steadily develop intelligent agents such as pre-diagnosis and report parsing to improve patient experience.
27. Human Resources. Explore the application of intelligent agents in areas such as employment promotion, training and evaluation of technical and skilled personnel, and public services related to labor relations to enhance employment service capabilities. Develop intelligent agents for social insurance, labor dispute arbitration, and wage arrears management to protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers.
28. Information Services. Explore the application of intelligent agents in the construction and management of online content, and encourage information publishing departments and content dissemination platforms to develop intelligent agents for user analysis, topic planning, news gathering and editing, distribution and recommendation, intelligent review, public opinion guidance, emotional regulation, and real-time translation , so as to achieve efficient integration of multimodal and cross-domain information.
(V) Social Governance
29. Government Services. Explore intelligent systems to assist in approval processes and promote the intelligentization of government approval procedures. Develop intelligent systems for policy consultation, providing 24/7 online government consultation, process guidance, and other services. Explore proactively pushing relevant policies, service reminders, and processing guides to accelerate the transformation from " people seeking services " to " services finding people . "
30. Judicial Services. Explore intelligent systems to assist in the entire case - handling process, improving capabilities in areas such as case material organization, case information entry, evidence review, and auxiliary legal document generation. Develop intelligent systems for legal publicity, legal consultation, and legal supervision to provide the public with efficient and convenient online judicial services.
31. Public Safety. Explore intelligent agents for monitoring and early warning, emergency response, rescue dispatch , and collaborative governance to enhance capabilities in safety production supervision and disaster prevention, mitigation, and relief . Improve the ability of intelligent agents to identify abnormal behavior, provide early warning of potential threats, and dynamically control and handle threats to safeguard public safety. Promote the application of embodied intelligent agents in disaster relief, security patrols, and hazardous materials disposal.
3.2 . Urban Governance. Explore the application of intelligent agents in urban planning, construction, and governance to support intelligent construction, housing management, and the safe operation of urban infrastructure, thereby improving the professionalism of urban governance and enhancing the quality of the urban living environment.
33. Bidding and Tendering . Explore intelligent bidding and tendering agents to achieve intelligent management of the entire bidding and tendering process, ensuring standardization and efficiency throughout. Enhance the intelligence level of bidding and tendering transactions, services, and supervision to achieve scientific and reasonable bidding, fair and impartial bid evaluation, and transparent and efficient supervision.
V. Building an Innovation Ecosystem
Unblock supply and demand channels, promote high-level interaction between the R&D side and the demand side , and form a market-driven and internally driven intelligent body industry ecosystem.
(a) Promoting industrial cooperation
3.4 . Cultivate open-source innovation capabilities. Guide domestic AI open-source communities to strengthen the development of intelligent agents and promote compatibility and adaptation between intelligent agents and open-source chips, open-source operating systems, and large open-source models. Guide enterprises, universities, and research institutions to actively participate in open-source projects such as intelligent agent frameworks, interaction interfaces, and toolchains, promote the integrated development of technology systems, and accelerate the enhancement of international influence.
3.5 . Establish an industry collaboration platform. Leverage the role of industry collaboration platforms such as intelligent agent-related ecosystem alliances and technology verification laboratories to coordinate upstream and downstream industries in conducting research and development of common intelligent agent technologies, standard setting, evaluation and certification, and to cultivate compound talents in intelligent agent technology and industrial applications. Guide enterprises in fields such as internet applications and smart terminals to jointly build an ecosystem and explore mutually beneficial cooperation models.
(II) Strengthen application promotion
3.6 . Build application promotion channels. Promote the establishment of intelligent agent software stores and industry supply and demand information release platforms, guide intelligent agent companies to actively release products, and form a clustering effect. Carry out intelligent agent application supply and demand matching activities, and attract intelligent agent companies to develop corresponding customized products through open bidding and open competition. Guide OEM and software companies to develop products and services based on intelligent agents and cultivate the user market.
3.7 . Promote the opening up of key scenarios. Promote the opening up of intelligent agent application scenarios in key areas, conduct pilot projects for intelligent agent applications in industrial clusters, key industries , and key fields , and create a number of leading demonstration projects. Develop market-oriented and professional intelligent agent technology transformation service institutions, explore intelligent agent application scenarios, and improve the efficiency of technology transfer . Promote the sharing and opening up of industry data to support the training and deployment of intelligent agents in key scenarios .
3.8 . Actively cultivate a global ecosystem. Leverage international platforms such as the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and the World Internet Conference to exchange and showcase innovative achievements in intelligent agent technology . Promote the adaptation of terminal equipment and software companies to intelligent agents, guide relevant enterprises to strengthen overseas compliance, and help intelligent agents adapt to local laws, regulations, and cultural customs.
VI . Safeguard Measures
The Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission , and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments , have strengthened overall planning, enhanced resource integration and coordination, improved supporting policies, and formed a synergy to promote the implementation of key tasks. They have established and improved an evaluation index system for the development of intelligent agents, and strengthened the monitoring, evaluation , rolling implementation, and dynamic adjustment of the standardized application and innovative development of intelligent agents .
Reviewed by: Chen Wuyang
Edited by: Wang Yutong
Proofread by: Zhao Juan
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