Alibaba plans to build AI into the internal workflows of Taobao and Tmall merchants starting in 2027, Tmall president Liu Bo said at a Singles’ Day briefing on October 15. Qwen Work, the company’s AI assistant for businesses, will lead that push, and its e-commerce edition for sellers on several platforms went into testing on October 14. Liu also wants AI to broaden what young, active shoppers buy, raising the 15 categories they shop in a year on average to between 25 and 30. Alibaba is also starting to sell AI tokens on its marketplaces, packaging compute from Z.ai, MiniMax and other Chinese model makers into bundles for students, researchers and small teams.
