Alibaba's AI strategy shift comes into focus with big bets on agents
The Hindu
Alibaba is sharpening its artificial intelligence strategy by focusing on agents that connect the many businesses under its sprawling corporate umbrella.
Alibaba is sharpening its artificial intelligence strategy by focusing on agents that connect the many businesses under its sprawling corporate umbrella.
In recent months, Alibaba has rolled out several AI agent integrations and this week, the firm said it would separate its AI businesses from its cloud computing arm. The newly formed Alibaba Token Hub business group, led by Chief Executive Eddie Wu, is the clearest sign yet that the company is shifting its focus to digital assistants powered by AI models that consume far more tokens, units of data used by models to generate language, than traditional Q&A chatbots.
Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
The $325 billion e-commerce giant reports quarterly results on Thursday, with AI monetisation in focus as major tech firms in China and beyond wrestle with how to make the era-defining technology profitable. Analysts expect Alibaba’s third-quarter revenue to rise 3.8% and net income to fall 42.5%. The quarter included Singles’ Day, China’s biggest shopping festival.
Facing a prolonged slump in consumer confidence as shoppers save rather than spend, a weak macroeconomic outlook and a prolonged property crisis that has eroded household wealth, Alibaba has turned to new business models to encourage consumption.
Last year, the firm invested heavily in acquiring users for its instant retail platform, which competes in the one-hour delivery market with Meituan. This year, Alibaba’s AI chatbot Qwen has begun moving beyond answering questions to helping users make purchases directly through a chat interface.
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