Revolutionizing Sourcing with Advanced AI
for SMEs
PARIS, July 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Alibaba
International today announced the launch of a groundbreaking
AI-powered conversational sourcing engine, anticipated to make its
debut this September. This sourcing engine is set to revolutionize
the global sourcing process for small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs), making it more intuitive and highly efficient.
A Sourcing Engine Dedicated to B2B E-commerce
Leveraging the latest advancements in AI technology, Alibaba
International's new sourcing engine is laser-focused on B2B
e-commerce. It synthesizes vast quantities of information,
interprets sourcing needs using natural language processing,
matches buyers with products and suppliers with unprecedented
accuracy, and provides advanced tools for seamless sourcing
decision-making.
The new conversational sourcing engine has been fine-tuned using
over one billion product listings and industry-specific knowledge
compiled from Alibaba platforms and beyond.
Designed specifically to overcome the complexities inherent in
traditional B2B e-commerce navigation. This innovative solution
tackles the inefficiencies of conventional search methodologies
which are often time-consuming, manually intensive, and involve
laborious data categorization processes merely to locate suitable
business partners and products.
Kuo Zhang, President of
Alibaba.com, shared in media interviews in Paris during the Olympics: "Traditional search
engines evaluate web page importance through interlinking,
credibility and ad spend. In this AI era, the B2B sourcing engine
offers an intuitive and organic way to query, as well as rapidly
and accurately match business buyers and business sellers based on
their proven track record."
A Whole New Experience for B2B Global Trade
Unlike traditional search methods where buyers and sellers sift
through webpages and manually summarize information, Alibaba
International's new AI-powered sourcing engine is set to redefine
the user experience in global trade. Highlights of the new sourcing
engine include:
- Intuitive, Predictive, and Conversational.
This B2B sourcing engine will be the first of its kind to
integrate all e-commerce storefronts across the internet. Unlike
traditional search engines, which rely heavily on simple ranking
and indexing, this AI-powered sourcing engine will focus on
understanding natural language and transforming it into
professional sourcing requests. It can even predict sourcing needs
and provide suggestions. It also allows complex queries or full
documents as inputs, and the system will distinguish and respond to
them in natural language.
- Reconstruction of Information.
E-commerce has traditionally used product listings with titles,
descriptions, keywords, and pictures. However, business buyers
often need to compare multiple suppliers. This AI-powered sourcing
engine will reorganize such information to enable direct,
custom-made, and side-by-side comparisons.
Building the conversational search function is just one part of
the solution. The end goal is to enable business deals. By
leveraging 25 years of expertise in digitalizing various trade
aspects — products, payments, logistics, customs, and currency
exchanges – AI can now mimic the experience of having a sourcing
professional by your side. This technology can level the playing
field and significantly reduce costs, enabling SMEs to become
integral players in the global supply chain.
Continued Effort in AI
Last November, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group
introduced its generative artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit,
branded "Aidge," which has been adopted by approximately 500,000
merchants, with daily API usage reaching 50 million calls. Deployed
across over 40 e-commerce scenarios including product listing
refinement, marketing, customer service, and automation, AI has
significantly boosted content quality, click-through rates,
conversion rates, and customer satisfaction. Notable features
include a virtual try-on tool for apparel and a 24/7 AI customer
service capability, which increased AliExpress Choice's conversion
rates from pre-sales inquiries by 29% in June.
Since last April, Alibaba International has assembled an AI
business team of 100 experts and continues to hire new
members.
For more information, please visit: www.aidc-ai.com
About Alibaba International Digital Commerce
Group
Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group is dedicated to
supporting the development of global digital trade with AI-powered
technology. It operates various platforms with distinctive business
models, covering multiple countries and regions around the
world.
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