Header photo source: 01.AI.
01.AI is reportedly undergoing a major round of executive reshuffling, according to 36Kr. Shen Pengfei, former vice president of Baidu AI Cloud’s China operations, joined 01.AI as co-founder over a month ago, following the company’s strategic pivot earlier this year. Shen now oversees business development and sales for 01.AI’s B2B and B2G segments.
Meanwhile, core team members Zhao Binqiang and Ning Ning have both been promoted to vice president. Together with Peng, they will lead 01.AI’s divisions in sales and marketing, technology and model development, and international consulting.
With more than 26 years of experience in IT and the internet industry, Shen holds a master’s degree from Xi’an Jiaotong University. He joined Baidu in 2017 and spent eight years leading key business units across its enterprise and government segments. He brings extensive expertise in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data, cybersecurity, and IT architecture, along with deep market insight.
Shen is also known for his strong government and enterprise network. He has led teams of several hundred people in securing and delivering large-scale projects exceeding RMB 6 billion (USD 840 million). Before joining Baidu, he founded Yescai.com, which received investment from Plum Ventures and Future Capital.
His arrival marks another high-profile addition from Baidu’s leadership ranks. In 2023, Ma Jie, former Baidu vice president, joined 01.AI to oversee industrial applications of large models and related business units.
Before founding Yescai.com, Shen served as COO and rotating CEO at Anquanbao, a company co-founded by Ma Jie. After two years, the pair are teaming up once again, this time to drive 01.AI’s B2B expansion both domestically and internationally.
Zhao Binqiang, a Tsinghua University graduate and former senior algorithm expert at Alibaba, brings 17 years of experience in internet algorithms and AI. Since joining 01.AI in 2023, Zhao has led development of the company’s proprietary model data engineering systems and full training pipeline. He now heads R&D for model algorithms and agent innovation, as well as productivity tools targeting overseas professional users, providing technical support and delivery for 01.AI’s B2B projects.
Ning Ning, who earned his PhD from the National University of Singapore, joined 01.AI in early 2024. He now leads international market development and consulting for enterprise- and nation-level AI transformation projects. Under his leadership, 01.AI has completed several landmark international initiatives, including national sovereign AI models and AI transformation programs for multinational corporations in Belt and Road countries.
Ning has also served as chief AI officer for several clients, reporting directly to CEOs to support AI-driven business growth and organizational change.
After a round of business adjustments in March, 01.AI announced a strategic pivot to double down on B2B opportunities, pursuing domestic and international growth in parallel.
CEO Lee Kai-Fu has repeatedly emphasized that successful enterprise AI transformation requires direct involvement from senior leadership, particularly CEOs, in designing strategy, identifying use cases, and embedding AI into core business workflows to achieve meaningful value creation.
In August, 01.AI and the Kazakhstan government jointly launched AlemLLM, a Kazakh-language AI model. In October, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with Lee to discuss further cooperation on national AI language model development.
According to 36Kr, 01.AI is actively recruiting top-tier international AI consultants and delivery experts to strengthen its global competitiveness.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Chen Jiahui for 36Kr.