HANGZHOU, Zhejiang: At the ride-hailing pickup point at Hangzhou West Railway Station, there is none of the usual scramble of passengers waiting by the kerb. Instead, commuters sit comfortably in an air-conditioned lounge, watching a giant screen that alerts them when their ride has arrived. Long known as the birthplace of e-commerce giant Alibaba, Hangzhou has evolved into one of China's leading technology hubs. While DeepSeek's rapid rise has thrust the city back into the global spotlight, Hangzhou's AI ambitions extend far beyond chatbots and large language models. Across the capital of Zhejiang province, AI is being deployed in everything from healthcare and logistics to manufacturing, robotics and public services, with new applications emerging at a rapid pace.