All merchants on Alibaba to integrate AI by this year
What's the story
Alibaba.com, the international wholesale marketplace owned by Alibaba Group Holding, is aiming to have all sellers on its platform fully leverage its artificial intelligence (AI) tools by the end of this year.
To make this happen, the company has increased its investment in AI technology significantly.
Zhang Kuo, President of Alibaba.com, said more than half of the roughly 200,000 merchants on the platform already use these AI applications on a weekly basis.
Tool functionality
AI tools support various seller functions
The AI tools, introduced in early 2024, are designed to assist sellers with marketing, product management, customer engagement, and risk control.
These capabilities are part of Alibaba's plan to expand its cross-border e-commerce business.
Zhang was confident that by the end of this year, all merchants would be using these tools.
He said once merchants find these aspects easier to manage and see improved performance from the AI agents, they will fully adopt them.
Investment plan
Alibaba's commitment to cloud computing and AI
Zhang's comments highlight Alibaba's increased focus on cloud computing and AI.
The move comes after the company committed to invest at least 380 billion yuan ($52 billion) over the next three years to enhance its infrastructure related to these technologies.
This investment marks the largest-ever computing project financed by a single private business in China.