Under the multiple unexpected domestic and international shocks, exploring the impact of artifi cial intelligence (AI) on the resilience of the high-tech industry is of significant importance for promoting highquality development in these sectors. This paper incorporates AI into the analytical framework for enhancing the resilience of the high-tech industry, constructs a resilience index from the dimensions of the impact toughness and fracture toughness, and examines the mechanisms of AI’s impact on the high-tech industry resilience using provincial panel data from China between 2010 and 2023 The results indicate: AI signifi cantly promotes the resilience of the high-tech industry, and this conclusion remains valid after endogeneity and robustness tests. The promoting eff ect of AI on the high-tech industry resilience exhibits notable regional heterogeneity, being more pronounced in the Central China. AI not only directly enhances the resilience of the high-tech industry but also indirectly infl uences it by fostering industrial upgrading, with a stronger mediating eff ect on impact toughness than on fracture toughness. This paper provides important insights for governments and enterprises to better unleash the empowering benefi ts of AI and enhance the resilience of the high-tech industry in the new landscape.