As a subversive digital technology, artificial intelligence has become an important engine to drive the highquality development of manufacturing industry. Different from the previous comprehensive measurement perspective, this paper classifies 939, 500 patent application data of artificial intelligence in China from 2010 to 2022 from three dimensions: industrial chain technology layer, application layer and platform layer, so as to construct core explanatory variables and empirically test the multidimensional effect and mechanism of artificial intelligence driving the highquality development of manufacturing industry. It is found that there are structural differences in the multidimensional effects of artificial intelligence driving the highquality development of manufacturing industry. The coefficients of variables in technology layer and platform layer are significantly positive, while the coefficients of variables in application layer are not significant. Heterogeneity test shows that the regression coefficient of artificial intelligence is significantly positive under the highend and intelligent dimensions of manufacturing, while the regression coefficient of artificial intelligence is significantly negative under the green dimensions. The analysis of action mechanism shows that artificial intelligence mainly promotes the highquality development of manufacturing industry by improving labor productivity, and the transmission mechanism of human capital upgrading and consumer demand upgrading is not significant. Accordingly, this paper puts forward policy suggestions from four aspects: strengthening the infiltration and application of artificial intelligence in manufacturing industry, promoting the regional cooperation between artificial intelligence and manufacturing industry, promoting the development of artificial intelligence segmentation, and giving play to the role of labor productivity in promoting manufacturing industry.