First of all, Professor Fan Zhiping introduced the relevant concepts of artificial intelligence, including its definition, core technologies, main development stages and major types, and further demonstrated the application scenarios of artificial intelligence in intelligent manufacturing, smart retail, smart logistics, smart finance and other fields. Next, Professor Fan pointed out that the academic community attaches great importance to research on artificial intelligence, and summarized the latest progress of existing research for the teachers and students present from two aspects: empirical research related to “artificial intelligence + management science” and research related to operations management against the backdrop of artificial intelligence. Finally, based on the current research status, Professor Fan put forward the research challenges and prospects brought by artificial intelligence, including the key factors affecting enterprises' adoption of artificial intelligence and the privacy protection issues caused by artificial intelligence, which triggered in-depth reflection among the teachers and students present.

After the report, Professor Fan Zhiping conducted in-depth exchanges with the on-site teachers and students on topics such as how to identify high-quality research topics and how to use artificial intelligence to obtain data.

Fan Zhiping is currently a Grade-II Professor and Academic Leader of the Management Science and Engineering Discipline at the School of Business Administration, Northeastern University. He was selected into the Major Talent Project of the Ministry of Education and is a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars. His main research interests are operations management and decision analysis. As the project leader, he has presided over and completed 9 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (including projects of Distinguished Young Scholars, Major Research Plans and Key Programs), as well as more than 30 provincial and ministerial-level scientific research projects and enterprise research projects. He has been selected as an Elsevier China Highly Cited Scholar for 9 consecutive years (2014–2022). As a core contributor, he has won 6 provincial and ministerial-level Science and Technology Progress Awards and Natural Science Awards, 2 Outstanding Achievement Awards in Scientific Research in Institutions of Higher Education (Humanities and Social Sciences) issued by the Ministry of Education, and 6 provincial and ministerial-level Academic Achievement Awards in Humanities and Social Sciences (Government Awards). He also holds concurrent positions including Member of the Management Science Department of the 8th Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Education, Standing Director of the Chinese Society for Management Science and Engineering, Director of the Operations Research Society of China, and Director of the Systems Engineering Society of China.

Written by/Qin Xiangyu Reviewed by/Jia Ming