Bilibili has appointed Ailing Zeng, a Tencent AI researcher with expertise in human-centric video generation, to lead its artificial intelligence video generation business, signaling intensified competition among Chinese platforms to build proprietary AI capabilities. Zeng, who spent three years at Tencent's Hunyuan AI Lab and later developed interactive multimodal video systems at Anuttacon, now reports directly to Bilibili CEO Rui Chen.

The appointment reflects Bilibili's broader strategy to embed AI across content creation, distribution, and monetization. Since launching its Index foundation model in 2024, Bilibili has applied the technology to video understanding, recommendation systems, role-playing, speech generation, and anime video creation. The company is now scaling these capabilities to compete with other Chinese tech giants investing heavily in video AI.

What Tools Is Bilibili Building for Creators?

Bilibili launched Updream in March 2026, a professional-grade AI content production pipeline featuring long-term memory, personalized skill libraries, and a free-form canvas. The platform represents a shift toward making advanced AI video generation accessible to Bilibili's massive creator base. In July, the company expanded its ecosystem by launching Toy, a web content publishing platform that allows creators to publish interactive works directly through Bilibili with a single click.

During internal testing of Toy in June and July, creators uploaded more than 300 works including games, interactive narratives, tools, and illustrated collections. Users interacted with these works more than 8.5 million times during the testing period, demonstrating strong demand for interactive content creation tools.

How Are Creators Adopting Bilibili's AI Tools?

• Competition Participation: Nearly 5,000 creators submitted entries to the "Build in Bilibili" AI creation competition within one month of its June launch, with a prize pool exceeding 1.3 million Chinese yuan (approximately USD 192,313).
• Search Trend Surge: Average daily searches on Bilibili for "vibe coding," a method of building software through natural language prompts, increased sixfold following the competition announcement.
• Broader AI Interest: Searches for terms related to general-purpose AI agents and AI entrepreneurship increased by more than 500 percent year-over-year in 2026, with more than 190 million users watching AI-related content monthly in the second quarter.

Bilibili has also organized an AI producer program with the Astana AI Film Festival and launched incentive programs encouraging creators to produce AI-generated animation. At the start of 2026, the company held its first AI creation competition, awarding the winner 1 million Chinese yuan (approximately USD 147,929 using the source's conversion rate of RMB 6.76 = USD 1).

Why Does Zeng's Background Matter?

Zeng's appointment signals Bilibili's commitment to recruiting specialized AI talent. She earned a doctorate from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and served as a visiting scholar at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. At Tencent's Hunyuan and AI Lab teams, she worked with the International Digital Economy Academy (IDEA), where she led a research team focused on human-centric perception and generation.

At Anuttacon, an AI company founded by Mihoyo founder Haoyu Cai, Zeng developed human-centric, interactive multimodal video generation systems. This experience directly aligns with Bilibili's stated priorities in video understanding, recommendation, and AI-assisted creation. Her appointment follows a brief leadership tenure by Zhang Di, a former Kuaishou vice president and former head of the technical team at Kling AI, who joined Bilibili in September 2025 but left approximately two months later to return to Alibaba Group.

How Is Bilibili Monetizing AI?

Beyond creator tools, Bilibili has integrated AI into its advertising and recommendation systems. The company offers advertising creative generation, ad placement, automated campaign management, and embedded AI advertising trials. AI-generated advertising materials now account for more than 50 percent of ad spending and have produced double-digit growth in click-through rates compared with conventional materials. Automated advertising accounts for more than 85 percent of ad spending, demonstrating the company's success in monetizing AI capabilities.

Zeng's appointment underscores how Chinese content platforms are competing to build proprietary AI video capabilities. As Bilibili scales its AI infrastructure, creator incentives, and advertising systems, the company is positioning itself as a comprehensive platform for AI-assisted content production, from initial creation through distribution and monetization. The combination of creator tools, community engagement, and advertising integration reflects a strategy to capture value across the entire content lifecycle.