Chinese electric vehicle maker Leapmotor has teamed up with Tencent to deploy the latter's WorkBuddy AI workbench across more than 40 core business scenarios, slashing application development time by roughly 90% on average, according to Chinese automotive outlet D1EV.
WorkBuddy, Tencent's all-scenario AI desktop workbench, officially joined Leapmotor on September 23. The system supports local file processing, multi-task and multi-agent parallel operations, and integrates with Skills and MCP ecosystems. It has already been deeply applied in areas such as vehicle R&D, intelligent driving, connected car services, procurement, supply chain, and auditing.
One example cited is the stamping die management system, which covers 12 modules including die ledger, stamping records, maintenance, life monitoring, and scrap decision-making. Traditionally, building such a system would require about 100 person-days, with 12 person-days just for requirements and design and about 70 for system development. Using WorkBuddy, business staff built the system in just 10 person-days—about two weeks—through a human-machine collaboration model of AI-generated code plus manual review and integration, saving roughly 90% of the investment.
From Excel to one-screen tracking
Another example is the test vehicle delivery tracking system. Previously, coordinating temporary license plates, transport arrangements, and delivery schedules for pre-production test vehicles relied on Excel files passed between departments, leading to missed updates and version errors. With WorkBuddy, Leapmotor employees built a system that tracks the status of 69 test vehicles in real time on a single screen, with one-click feedback for license plate processing and transport arrangements. The system took only 5 person-days to develop with AI assistance, compared to an estimated 45 person-days traditionally, saving about 89% of the effort.
The same development model is being rolled out across more business scenarios in Leapmotor's vehicle R&D. The CTIC software quality management platform was reduced from about 90 person-days to 8, a 91% saving. The intelligent cockpit evaluation system dropped from 70 to 7 person-days, the Leap-X engineering digital platform from 180 to 18, and the LIMS laboratory information management system from 150 to 15 person-days—all achieving about 90% efficiency gains.
Beyond R&D: supply chain and intelligent driving
WorkBuddy is also accelerating in electronic product business and supply chain management. In intelligent driving, it helps rapidly build navigation product prototypes, speeding up functional validation and iteration. In connected car services, it supports operations during traffic peaks, ensuring service stability and timely responses. In procurement and supply chain risk control, WorkBuddy enables automated price update alerts, fully online approval processes, and uses AI agents to continuously track supplier business conditions, shifting from passive post-incident response to proactive early warning.
The efficiency gains are just the starting point. The deeper change lies in the accumulation of organizational experience. Business knowledge in die management, test vehicle scheduling, quality control, and supply chain risk—previously stored mainly in the minds of senior employees—is now being encapsulated into reusable skills through WorkBuddy's Skills capability, open to the entire company. Tencent and Leapmotor are deepening their cooperation to promote WorkBuddy across more scenarios in R&D, production, supply, sales, and delivery, exploring AI-native organizational practices and providing reference paths for AI agent adoption in the automotive industry.
