China's SaaS startups embrace AI as last resort to secure VC funding

China's SaaS startups embrace AI as last resort to secure VC funding

Photo: Caspar Camille Rubin / Unsplash

The Chinese software service industry is heading into a capital winter as the buzz of the late 2010s and flood of investment have yet to generate any headline-grabbing success stories. But as downtrodden investors pull back from much of the sector, one niche is still attracting capital: software as a service (SaaS) combined with artificial intelligence (AI).