Editor's note: The State Council Information Office held a group interview last week featuring outstanding courier professionals to discuss how to connect thousands of homes through delivery services.

As AI reshapes the industry, express delivery services are poised to become faster, smarter and more reliable than ever before. A new era of more intelligent, efficient and hassle-free delivery is no longer far away. Today, a lychee picked fresh from a branch in Lingnan (in Hainan province) can be pre-cooled, loaded onto a refrigerated truck, transferred seamlessly to a flight, and arrive at a household 2,500 kilometers away in northern China before 8 am the next morning. Behind that speed is not only the power of algorithms driving China's courier industry, but also a broader transformation: delicacies once separated by great distances are now reaching ordinary families with remarkable ease.

Huang Yixiao, a senior operations research and optimization algorithm engineer at SF Technology

As a courier who has been rooted in the Daba Mountains for 16 years, I have witnessed firsthand the tremendous changes brought by the industry's development, as well as the difference these changes have made to local villagers' lives. The most obvious change is that villagers no longer have to count the days, waiting anxiously for their parcels to arrive. Deliveries bound for villages often had to spend an extra day winding through mountain roads. Now, with a sorting center, service stations and village-level delivery points in place, the time it takes for parcels to reach villages has been cut from six days to three.

Lei Liangyuan, head of a YTO Express outlet in Chengkou county, Chongqing

During Spring Festival in 2020, a letter from overseas arrived with no proper address. The only clue on the envelope was:"Please help find Ms Lin, about 70 years old". As per the rules, it could have been sent back. But I could not bring myself to give up. My colleagues and I worked with the local neighborhood committee, knocking on doors and asking around one household after another. In the end, our persistence paid off. We found the recipient's younger brother on Lujiao Road. Seeing relatives who had been out of touch for 30 years finally reconnect because of our efforts was deeply moving. At that moment, I truly understood why people say a letter from home is priceless.

Xiao Meibin, a postman with Xiamen Post in Gulangyu Island, Xiamen, Fujian province

Before this job, I had never left Xizang. But in a way, every parcel I sent out traveled across China for me. To me, the delivery network is like a hada, the traditional Tibetan ceremonial scarf, tying Xizang closely to inland provinces. Each parcel is a journey of trust, and each delivery is an arrival filled with warmth.

Metok Chosang, head of JD Logistics' Lhokha delivery station in the Xizang autonomous region

Huangshan Mountain is rich in tea, but many local farmers used to carry their harvest over mountain roads to sell it, which was hard work and brought only limited sales. So we took the initiative to visit them, offering one-stop services from packaging and sales support to delivery. Through our postal network, Huangshan tea and local specialties can now reach consumers across the country, helping small farm products find a much bigger market.

Xie Feijun, a postman from China Post's Huangshan district branch in Anhui province