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A generative artificial intelligence toolkit developed by Alibaba International has been used by around 500,000 merchants since it launched last year, Alibaba Group’s overseas commerce arm announced on Tuesday.
The suite of AI-powered tools, Aidge, helps vendors boost conversion rates and cut costs by offering translation services, text and image generation, customer service assistance and more.
Aidge is available across Alibaba International platforms including Lazada, AliExpress, Alibaba.com, Daraz and Trendyol.
To date, the functions have been used on more than 100 million product listings, while the number of daily application programming interface calls has doubled every two months and is now above 50 million.
“Global commerce represents a fertile ground for generative AI applications, particularly as LLMs are enhanced for greater multilingual capabilities,” Kaifu Zhang, Vice President of Alibaba International, said in a statement.
The business group reported that generative AI is responsible for a “statistically significant” rise in content quality, click-through rates and customer satisfaction—sometimes by double digits.
After adopting AI customer service in June, AliExpress’ Choice premium service saw a 29% increase in conversion rates from pre-sales inquiries.
Likewise, a pilot of the AI-powered Chargeback Agent service, which vendors can use to generate a dispute letter, showed a 15% increase in merchants’ chargeback defense success rate on average.
Giving Small Businesses an Aidge
AI provides a cost-effective way for merchants to streamline their operations and reach new customers, particularly for smaller businesses.
More than a third of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) on B2B platform Alibaba.com reported an increase in product exposure as a result of its AI functions.
These include a virtual try-on feature that allows vendors to create product images of virtual models wearing apparel items, saving them the time and expense of a real-life photoshoot.
AI is also improving other parts of the e-commerce journey.
Alibaba International’s AI Refund Agent, now in development, will be able to automatically process the reasons behind transaction disputes and verify evidence to calculate refund amounts for merchants.
“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 Zhang.
