'Super students' ride tide of AI innovation

Practical use

Shaoqing's experience fits a wider pattern, as more teenagers move from learning about technology to applying it in real settings, amid broader shifts in the skills the future workforce will need.

Employers expect 39 percent of workers' core skills to change by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025.

Dong, from the Youth Innovation Education Center, said students are joining innovation projects at younger ages, with topics ranging from eldercare solutions to sailing-training systems.

AI has lowered the barriers to implementing innovative ideas, she said, allowing students to turn their concepts into prototypes more quickly. In turn, this places greater emphasis on their ability to identify meaningful problems and improve their ideas. Shenzhen InnoX Academy has received more than 4,700 applications and supported 456 students, who have developed over 90 innovation projects during its bootcamps.

Dong said students often shift from searching for standard answers to defining problems themselves.

"Many initially focus on what technology they want to use, but gradually realize that innovation begins with understanding real users and real needs," she said.

Students are also learning to view failure as an opportunity to improve through testing, feedback and revision.

As terms such as "super student" gain popularity online, Dong believes the phenomenon should be viewed rationally.

"The goal of innovation education is not to cultivate a small number of 'super students'. What matters is not whether a student achieves something at a certain age, but whether they develop the ability to keep exploring, learning and solving problems," she said.

She also pushed back on the idea that early exposure to real-world projects leads to burnout. "The goal isn't to replicate adult workplace models, but to create an exploration environment suited to students' stage of growth," said Dong.

Digital platforms have also expanded opportunities for young people to create and share ideas. Nearly 3.1 million content creators earned income on Bilibili in 2024, and about 70 percent of people born in the 1990s are active in its community, according to the platform's 2024 financial results.