Abstract: As a leading force in a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) is bound to have a profound impact on the high-quality development. Based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2008 to 2019 and bringing the employment structure of the labor force with different skills into the analytical framework of AI and high-quality development, this paper conducts an empirical study. The findings show that the application of AI can promote the upgrading of urban industrial structure, raise the level of urban technological innovation and green and low carbon, so as to further promote the high-quality development of the cities. From the perspective of theoretical mechanism, the application of AI can promote high-quality urban development by reducing the employment share of low-skilled labors and increasing the employment share of high-skilled labors. From the perspective of different regions, the application of AI in the eastern region can significantly promote the high-quality development of the cities, and the high-skilled labor force will strengthen the impact of AI on the high-quality development; while the application of AI in the northeast region will significantly inhibit the high-quality development, and the low-skilled labor force will intensify the inhibition of AI on the high-quality development. The above conclusions suggest that the application of AI should be actively promoted to enable the high-quality development. Meanwhile, different regions should formulate differentiated AI development strategies according to the objective realities, such as employment structure and so on.

Key words: artificial intelligence, high-quality development, employment structure, industrial robot