---
id: "lib-2026-10-27-lao-gan-ma-denies-ai-chili-sorting-layoff-rumour"
type: "library"
title: "Lao Gan Ma denies AI chili-sorting layoff rumour"
title_original: "\"用AI拣椒导致裁员\"传闻惹争议，老干妈回应信息不实"
lang: "ZH"
org: "36氪 36Kr (EU mirror)"
source_type: "Practitioner post"
date: "2026-10-27"
week: "2026-W44"
url: "https://nosov.ai/library/lib-2026-10-27-lao-gan-ma-denies-ai-chili-sorting-layoff-rumour/"
original_url: "https://eu.36kr.com/zh/p/4042854293886084"
tier: "B"
tier_name: "Useful, limited"
tier_reason: "Jiemian News report republished by 36Kr that relays Lanjing News and a company statement but adds its own reading of public social-insurance records and their limits; useful context on how an AI quality-control remark turned into a layoff rumour, with no data on the actual staffing effect."
summary_basis: "full-text"
original_minutes: "4"
tags: ["future of work", "factory qc", "layoff rumours"]
---

# Lao Gan Ma denies AI chili-sorting layoff rumour

Original title: "用AI拣椒导致裁员"传闻惹争议，老干妈回应信息不实

Tier B (Useful, limited): Jiemian News report republished by 36Kr that relays Lanjing News and a company statement but adds its own reading of public social-insurance records and their limits; useful context on how an AI quality-control remark turned into a layoff rumour, with no data on the actual staffing effect.

Summary based on the full text.

## In short

A news piece (27 October 2026, Jiemian News via 36Kr) on a rumour that Lao Gan Ma, China's leading chili-sauce maker, used AI to cut its chili pickers from 600 to 48. The rumour grew from a mid-October speech by the firm's executive deputy general manager and chief quality officer, Li Xin, about an AI visual inspection system at the Changming base in Guiyang. The company hotline and HR staff said the layoff claim is false and the firm "never used that many workers" on the task. Public insurance data does show a steep fall in insured staff, but the article explains why that cannot be read as AI layoffs.

## Key numbers

- 0.02%: defect rate in key processes after AI visual inspection, per the company's chief quality officer
- every 0.3 s: scan interval of the high-speed industrial cameras over the chili sorting conveyor
- 600 to 48: rumoured cut in chili pickers, which the company calls untrue
- 2912 → 740: people on the main entity's social-insurance rolls, 2022 to 2025 (branches 1279 to 793 over the same period)
- 5.4 billion yuan: 2025 revenue (5.4 billion yuan), a record, which social media misreported as profit

## What it reports

- At the 2026 Guizhou Quality Development Conference, Li said four years of quality work led to record 2025 revenue of 5.4 billion yuan, and described cameras scanning the conveyor every 0.3 seconds to reject mouldy or spotted chilies; defect rate in key processes fell to 0.02%.
- Social media recast this as "600 workers cut to 48" and "earned 5.4 billion"; revenue was misread as net profit.
- Tianyancha data: insured staff at the main entity fell for four years, 2,912 (2022), 1,783 (2023), 941 (2024), 740 (2025). The trending "down more than 2,600" figure adds branch entities (1,279 to 793).
- The article notes the insured count covers the whole company, only direct employment with social insurance, and excludes outsourced, agency, seasonal and subsidiary staff; causes could include outsourcing, contract expiry and production reorganisation.
- HR confirmed the AI inspection system is live but denied any staff adjustment on the rumoured scale.
- Revenue 2022-2024: 5.26, 5.381, 5.391 billion yuan; 5.403 billion in 2020 and 4.201 billion in 2021. Market share about 55% in chili sauce and about 16% in Chinese seasoning sauces (Mashangying data).
- After the rumour, daily sales on one e-commerce platform fell to 1,000-5,000 yuan from 22 October, from 5,000-10,000 yuan before.

## How they got it

Reporting from a conference speech, statements by company hotline and HR staff (via Lanjing News), Tianyancha business-registry data and third-party retail monitoring. No interview with the quality officer or plant data on sorting headcount.

## Limits

- The actual number of chili pickers before and after the system is not reported, so neither the rumour nor the denial can be checked.
- Company responses come from hotline and HR staff, relayed second-hand.
- The 0.02% defect rate is the company's own figure with no baseline given.
- The sales drop comes from an unnamed third-party platform for one marketplace.

## Why it matters for companies

A short quality-control remark at a public event became a viral layoff story within days and hit online sales. Any firm presenting AI automation results, especially in labour-intensive production, should state staffing effects explicitly, or expect others to fill the gap with public registry data that does not measure what they think it measures. The case also shows how easily outsiders read insured-headcount trends as automation effects.

## Key passages in translation

> AI视觉质检系统落地之后，老干妈关键工序产品不良率降至0.02%。

After the AI visual inspection system went live, Lao Gan Ma's defect rate in key processes fell to 0.02%.

> 该数据覆盖全公司，不能等同于拣椒工序的实际减员。

This data covers the whole company and cannot be equated with actual staff reduction in the chili-sorting process.

> 企业从未有过网传对应规模的人员调整安排，并称 "从来都没有用过这么多工人"。

The company never had staff adjustments on the scale claimed online, and said it "has never used that many workers".

Original: https://eu.36kr.com/zh/p/4042854293886084