Currently, a global tide of technological and industrial transformation is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Innovation has emerged as the defining element of “New Quality Productive Forces,” with its importance growing by the day. To achieve high-level technological self-reliance, the robust support of Technology Finance is serving as an indispensable cornerstone.

On December 23, the 2024 Forum on Economic Thought and Coordinated Development of Technology-Industry-Finance was held at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Pu Yun, CTO of Agree Technology—a seasoned expert with over 20 years of experience in banking IT—was invited to share his insights. In an exclusive interview following the forum, Pu explored Agree Technology’s vision for a new FinTech ecosystem and its role as a premier provider of banking IT solutions.

Pu Yun noted that as digitalization sweeps through the financial sector, banks are aggressively embracing change. This shift is catalyzing new service models and interaction paradigms. Agree Technology has integrated this transformation into its own strategic narrative, blending cutting-edge tech with independent R&D. By fusing audio/video, VR/AR, and AI, the company is empowering banks to revolutionize customer engagement and modernize their service infrastructure.

“Our exploration is always driven by practical application,” Pu stated. “Our mission is to bridge the gap between advanced research and industry-wide empowerment.”

A Legacy of Independent R&D

Agree Technology’s journey began in the 1990s with its first self-developed product: the IBM 4700 terminal emulation card. This was followed by the AHA character-based front-end platform for tellers, which significantly expanded the company’s solution matrix. Over the decades, Agree Technology has solidified its standing as a professional powerhouse in financial IT application solutions.

Today, the company provides autonomous, secure, and reliable infrastructure platforms to over 200 financial institutions, including state-owned giants, joint-stock banks, and foreign-invested firms. According to a June 2024 report by CCID Consulting, Agree Technology ranked among the top ten in China’s overall banking IT solution market for 2023 and has consistently held the No. 1 position in the “Smart Branch” (Channel Service Solutions) sub-market.

Pu Yun, a Tsinghua University alumnus who joined the company in 2003, has been instrumental in this growth. He has spearheaded the R&D of core architectures—ranging from development tool ecosystems and full-stack front-end interaction to communication middleware and multi-execution engine platforms.

“For a tech enterprise, independent R&D is about more than just security and control,” Pu explained. “It’s about agility and innovation. It allows us to pivot and upgrade products instantly based on client needs, securing a competitive edge in a fierce market.”

Currently, Agree Technology boasts over 100 proprietary products, including its Financial Channel Cloud Platform (AB), Distributed AESB System, and AWEB development tools. Beyond its own R&D, the company is a key player in broader industrial ecosystems, collaborating with the Tencent Cloud Innovation Alliance and Huawei’s HarmonyOS to deliver “out-of-the-box” service experiences.

Embracing the AI Revolution

“Success depends on precise positioning,” Pu Yun emphasized. “Even with a humble start, a company can stand out if its strategy is sound.” From its early Java-based tools to its leadership in low-code platforms, Agree Technology has consistently stayed ahead of the curve. As China’s banking sector enters a new phase of intelligent upgrading—fueled by digital transformation and Generative AI (AIGC)—Agree Technology is ready.

“Long before Large Language Models (LLMs) became the focus of industry hype, we were already implementing AI in our ‘Cloud Teller’ solutions, utilizing ASR, NLP, and TTS,” Pu revealed. “This preemptive deployment laid the groundwork for us to seamlessly embrace the Large Model era.” Facing the AI explosion, Agree Technology has pivoted toward the fusion of ‘large and small’ models. The focus is on rapid iteration within specific business scenarios:

• Business Processing: Driving automation to slash response times and mitigate risk.
• Operational Management: Using AI as a “Co-pilot” for decision-making and resource optimization.

Pu Yun believes that while training frontier models requires massive capital and compute power, Agree Technology’s strength lies in its deep industry domain expertise. The company chooses to collaborate with “Big Tech” partners, focusing its resources on fine-tuning and scenario-specific innovations rather than starting from zero.

Looking ahead, Pu predicts that AI will permeate every corner of finance, though he remains pragmatic. “While AI is widely applied today, most use cases are still incremental—‘icing on the cake.’ The definitive killer app has yet to emerge.” Consequently, Agree Technology is scaling up its AI investment to find those transformative breakthroughs.

“We act as ‘pollinators’ in this ecosystem,” Pu Yun concluded with a vivid metaphor. “Like bees, we draw nourishment from the industry’s needs and spread the ‘pollen’ of advanced concepts and solutions, allowing innovation to flourish across the entire sector.”