Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (“Alibaba International”) announced today that about 500,000 merchants have now adopted its generative artificial intelligence (AI) toolkit across more than 40 e-commerce scenarios. Since the toolkit’s launch last November under the brand “Aidge,” its average daily application programming interface (API) calls have doubled every two months, now exceeding 50 million. At present, more than 100 million product listings on Alibaba International’s platforms have been thoroughly refined and adapted into multiple languages with the help of AI, enabling merchants to increase market reach and lift purchase conversion.
AI is playing an increasingly pivotal role in boosting the operational efficiency of merchants on all of Alibaba International’s e-commerce platforms. Collectively, these platforms have applied generative AI to more than 40 e-commerce scenarios, ranging from product listing refinement and marketing to customer service, design and process automation. In each of the use cases, generative AI has led to a statistically significant boost in content quality, click-through rates, conversion rates or customer satisfaction—sometimes by double digits.
AI capabilities now extend well beyond basic functions such as translation and generating text and images. Leveraging AI’s advanced abilities for customization and solving complex problems, Alibaba International has applied the technology in areas including customer service, chargeback defence and refunds.
In the area of customer service, the 24/7 availability of AI to deliver instant, informed responses—utilizing data from product detail pages (in technical terms, Retrieval Augmented Generation, or RAG)—can effectively address customer queries and facilitate shopping decisions. After adopting AI customer service in June 2024, AliExpress Choice, a premium service of AliExpress offering consumers free shipping, assured on-time delivery and free returns, reported a 29% increase in conversion rates from pre-sales inquiries.
AI also safeguards small and medium-sized businesses from financial setbacks caused by the common issue of chargebacks. When a consumer initiates a chargeback, Alibaba International’s Chargeback Agent promptly generates a dispute letter on behalf of the merchant involved, drawing upon order information such as payment and logistics details. Alibaba International’s pilot application suggests that this tool increases merchants’ chargeback defence success rate by 15% on average.
Building on the initial success, Alibaba International is in the process of launching an AI Refund Agent, providing both merchants and consumers with a more flexible refund solution. With the aim of optimizing customer satisfaction while reducing merchant costs, this automated tool efficiently processes the reasons behind e-commerce transaction disputes and verifies evidence to calculate refund amounts for merchants.
AI also possesses the ability to lower product supply costs for e-commerce merchants. For example, the virtual try-on feature developed by Alibaba International allows apparel merchants to effortlessly create images that display their products on virtual models, all with the simple upload of a clothing item’s image. It boasts a broad selection of model styles, enabling diverse product representations while offering merchants a cost-effective alternative to traditional model photoshoots.
“Global commerce represents a fertile ground for generative AI applications, particularly as LLMs are enhanced for greater multilingual capabilities. It is evident that small and medium-sized businesses stand to benefit the most from AI advancements, enabling them to overcome traditional barriers including the lack the access to talent and human expertise,” said Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International, who leads the company’s AI initiatives.
In addition to its own platforms, Alibaba International is also working with external partners in the cross-border e-commerce space to expand the reach of AI’s benefits. “We strongly believe that in the e-commerce space, generative AI is a real catalyst to fulfill Alibaba’s mission: to make it easy to do business anywhere,” added Zhang.
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