New quality productive forces, characterized by the optimal combination of laborer, laborer materials, and labor objects, represent the replacement of backward productive forces with advanced ones. They are a new driving force for high-quality economic development and the construction of Chinese-style modernization. How to drive the rise of new quality productive forces has become a focal point of discussion among scholars. However, no literature examines whether the National New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Development Pilot Zone policy (digital and intelligent innovation policy) can empower new quality productive forces in enterprises, as well as its impact mechanism and heterogeneity. This paper, based on the theoretical analysis of how digital and intelligent innovation policy affect new quality productive forces in enterprises, uses panel data of cities at the prefecture level and above from 2013 to 2022. Employing a multi-period difference-in-differences model, the study investigates how digital and intelligent innovation policy impact new quality productive forces in enterprises. The results show that digital and intelligent innovation policy can effectively enhance new quality productive forces in enterprises. This conclusion remains valid after robustness tests for endogeneity. Diversification of supply chains, digital transformation of enterprises, and digital technology innovation are important transmission channels through which digital and intelligent innovation policy promotes the rise of new quality productive forces in enterprises. Moreover, the impact of digital and intelligent innovation policy on new quality productive forces in enterprises varies significantly depending on urban and enterprise characteristics. Specifically, the impact is significantly positive in the eastern region, central cities, large cities, and among non-large enterprises, enterprises with low financing constraints, and non-state-owned enterprises, but not significant in the central and western regions, peripheral cities, small cities, large enterprises, enterprises with high financing constraints, and state-owned enterprises. Compared with existing research, the possible innovations are reflected in the following three aspects. Firstly, it discusses the theoretical mechanism of how digital and intelligent innovation policy affect new quality productive forces in enterprises, and based on existing research, it expands the index system of new quality productive forces in enterprises and empirically tests the role of digital and intelligent innovation policy in promoting new quality productive forces, enriching the existing research framework. Secondly, it introduces three key variables: supply chain diversification, enterprise digital transformation, and digital technology innovation, discussing their roles in the relationship between digital and intelligent innovation policy and new quality productive forces in enterprises, which helps to clarify the path of digital and intelligent innovation policy in enhancing new quality productive forces in enterprises. Thirdly, considering the differences in urban and enterprise characteristics, it analyzes the heterogeneity of the impact of digital and intelligent innovation policy on new quality productive forces in enterprises under different characteristics. The research conclusions not only expand the driving factors of new quality productive forces from the perspective of digital and intelligent innovation policy but also provide a new perspective for understanding the role of digital and intelligent innovation policy in the modern economic system. This paper focuses on the relationship between digital and intelligent innovation policy and new quality productive forces in enterprises, explaining the inherent causal relationship and logic between the two. It helps government departments summarize the experience of digital and intelligent innovation policy, as well as optimize and promote the policy when guiding enterprises to expand the application areas of digital-intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, thereby promoting the improvement of production efficiency and value chains, and achieving the transformation from old productive forces to new ones.