Sany Heavy Industry Co, one of China's biggest construction machinery manufacturers by production volume, is diversifying into the internet of things, or IoT, area to exploit opportunities presented by the advent of artificial intelligence or AI.

He Dongdong, Sany's senior vice-president, leads the company's open industrial IoT platform, the country's first, called Irootech Technology Co Ltd, of which he is the chief executive officer.

Currently, Irootech links over 3 million machines across energy, textile, automobile, agricultural and machinery industries.