From late last year to early this year, DeepSeek has undoubtedly dominated the tech landscape. My social feeds—public accounts and short videos—have featured daily updates about DeepSeek, from model comparisons to website glitches and workarounds for full-featured access. Concurrently, industries and institutions have launched an "arms race," with corporate announcements flooding newsfeeds about xxx adopting DeepSeek. Sectors like internet services, finance, construction, and even government agencies are rushing to deploy DeepSeek solutions, as if falling behind would mean obsolescence. The GIS industry is no exception—software vendors and GIS practitioners alike have publicly announced their DeepSeek integrations.

This prompts a question for GIS professionals like myself: After integrating DeepSeek, what comes next? Where are the practical applications for DeepSeek + GIS?

Baidu Map's Practical Approach

Amidst vendor hype, finding real-world implementations proved challenging—most were demonstrated through videos or screenshots, often targeting B2B use cases with limited public access. Recently, while researching travel destinations, I discovered a refreshing exception: Baidu Maps. This might be the first consumer-facing, publicly accessible DeepSeek+GIS application.

To try it:

  1. Open Baidu Maps' search bar
  2. Enter: "Foreign cities suitable for weekend trips from Wuhan"
  3. Look for the DeepSeek-generated response:

Note that not all queries trigger this feature—e.g., searching "Parking near Zhongshan Company in Wuhan" returns standard parking results:

Baidu’s implementation excels in contextual relevance. Such queries previously required platforms like Xiaohongshu (Red), but now align perfectly with map-based travel planning, closing the loop on trip research.

DeepSeek: A Hammer in Search of Nails

So where are viable DeepSeek+GIS applications? Beyond AI chatbots, proposal drafting, documentation, or code snippets—scenarios already achievable without DeepSeek—few industry-specific innovations exist. Even in my earlier tutorial "Using DeepSeek for Rapid QGIS Cartography", substituting Gemini during DeepSeek downtime worked seamlessly.

Currently, DeepSeek resembles a hammer that industries are wielding to find nails. Whether auto-generating presentations (Kimi suffices), creating graphics (Jimeng works), or editing videos, most "innovations" prioritize novelty over substance.

Closing Thoughts

Discussions about AI-induced job displacement persist, but as someone who’s witnessed multiple hype cycles—from blockchain to metaverse to digital twins—I remain optimistic. Instead of fearing technological disruption, focus on tangible threats like industry-wide layoffs.

I eagerly await more implementations like Baidu Maps—applications where GIS+AI solves genuine user needs. If this technology can liberate GIS professionals from repetitive tasks to pursue creative work, it will fulfill its real promise.