Alibaba Group Holding’s global business-to-business (B2B) marketplace, the wholesale platform serving more than 200,000 merchants, on Friday unveiled a new artificial intelligence tool designed to make cross-border trade more efficient.
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Alibaba.com, which operates under the group’s international commerce arm, has created “AI Mode” for its online search engine to help global users reliably find the products they need, according to Zhang Kuo, the platform’s president. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
In AI Mode, tailored results and recommendations are generated via natural language queries.
Based on user queries, the AI tool would automatically compare suppliers in minutes – using metrics that include price and production capabilities – and provide straightforward recommendations, Zhang told the Post in an interview on Thursday. Before AI, this was tedious sourcing process that took days or weeks to complete, he said.
The new tool was launched to coincide with Alibaba.com’s inaugural CoCreate Europe trade fair in London, an event designed for small and medium-sized businesses.
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AI Mode, which will be available online from next month, shows Alibaba’s sharpened focus on the technology to help improve its products and services.
