Being born in the middle of the last century, before the age of digitalization, I am not familiar with new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, which I regard as a kind of threat to human activities in terms of employment as the industrial revolution did over a century ago.

However, I appreciate its benefit and its changes to our society.

When China Daily invited me to Ningbo to visit companies using smart manufacturing technologies, I was only curious. As usual, I was keen to embark on this journey.

The first factory we visited, Zhongyin (Ningbo) Battery Co, produces small alkaline batteries. Its assembly lines use AI technology, and it is the first in the world to do so. The efficiency and speed at which the number of batteries is churned out are impressive.

The second factory, Youngor, a high-quality garment factory, left me in awe.

Twenty-Four-thousand employees benefit from smart manufacturing, which helps them produce vast quantities of suits with precision and efficiency in a quiet and clean environment.

Because the "supervisor" is AI, the presence of a human being overlooking the people's work is not necessary. This, in turn, results in a lack of stress as the "machine" adjusts its production to the worker's speed.

As we have seen on a giant screen that reports production speed, efficiency, and turnaround, the factory has improved tremendously with extraordinary energy saving, cost, and waste reduction results. Of course, the output has also increased.

The third factory, Dafeng, is more oriented toward innovation.

A few years ago, after watching Zhang Yimou 's magnificent show Enduring Memories of Hangzhou, I was surprised to see that more than 1,000 seats were folded, packed on a "trailer," and stored in a hanger in less than ten minutes by a semi-automatic system. Less than 30 years old, this company has become one of the world leaders in the field of seating automation for stadiums and transportation industries, including stage setting for show business.

This company was also behind the 2008 Olympic Games' opening ceremony.

The fourth company, Soundking, specializes in sound and visual systems. I discovered a quality rendering in sound and image, which I never saw before.

The high quality and efficiency of these four companies put them in a position that will be difficult to surpass without 5G.

After three days of intense activity, we were rewarded with an entertaining program that I was longing for kayaking, sailing, barbecue, and camping.

After watching an introduction to Naturehike camping products, we were invited to sail on a stretch of water right by Wanboofish Resort in the Beilun district.

The wind was good, the air was clean, and the weather temperature was perfect for my colleagues who discovered sailing and kayaking with joy. This was topped by a beautiful sunset which left the participants in an excellent mood for the barbecue organized on the beautiful lawn of this friendly sailing resort in Ningbo.

It was with sadness that I took the train back to Hangzhou, which I am usually happy to return to. The event left me nostalgic: when I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean as a skipper in 1980, there was no GPS, no long-distance transmitters for small sailboats, and no satellite network to broadcast weather. I used a white paper map, a wristwatch, and a sextant for navigation as it was done in ancient times.

I have to leave behind my old fashion vision of a world that has evolved so much that I have no choice but to embrace the future with new technology: these three days gave me a new vision of factory management and innovation with AI at the core.

Beyond the fascination it gave me, it inspired me for my "next life," the production of a 15-meter-long yacht, in a company for which I am signing a partnership the day after tomorrow, Monday.

Christian Fardel, consultant in maritime history and sailing