Zhang Kuo, President of Alibaba International Station: In the future, there will be an overabundance of large models, and good applications will be scarce resources

While the AI ​​industry is still exploring the direction of big models, Zhang Kuo, president of Alibaba International Station, has already posted an " AI report card".

On March 6 , at the " 2024 New Trends in Cross-border E-commerce Growth Conference " jointly organized by CCBEC and Alibaba International Station , Alibaba International Station revealed that only half a year after the launch of AI foreign trade products, 12,000 foreign trade companies have already ordered and used them , and the number of products released by AI has reached one million. Through AI optimization , the overseas search volume of these products has increased by 37 % .  

(Photo: Alibaba International Station shows its AI report card)

This means that the "application era" of AI has already arrived in the foreign trade industry.

Zhang Kuo, president of Alibaba International Station, believes: "With the development of science and technology, generative large models will be in excess, and good applications will be the scarce resources that drive industrial change." In Zhang Kuo's view, AI is driving the foreign trade industry towards comprehensive intelligence. Combined with Alibaba International Station's deep integration of the supply chain, it will ultimately lead to a comprehensive reduction in foreign trade thresholds and an exponential increase in efficiency.

This is the most important opportunity for the entire foreign trade industry in the future.

To this end, Alibaba International Station took the lead in launching AI foreign trade products last year , and launched semi-hosting based on the integration of the supply chain at the beginning of this year. The threshold for foreign trade will be further lowered and efficiency will be comprehensively improved.

Alibaba International Station has released its AI application report card

The generative AI wave has been going on for more than a year, and various models have emerged one after another. However, before Alibaba International Station, the actual application of AI was still very limited. Alibaba International Station is the first " pragmatic" one in the industry to put AI into practical application .

Not only have the two major products, AI Business Assistant and OKKI AI , already been helping to optimize and improve efficiency for millions of products, but Alibaba International Station will also carry out AI intelligent transformation of all 18 links of foreign trade .

At the scene, Zhang Kuo demonstrated a high-tech function called "picture-based products". In the future, when doing foreign trade on Alibaba International Station, it will even be possible to upload only one actual product picture, and AI will be able to intelligently complete the subsequent product information. After confirmation by the foreign trade staff, the product can be quickly released.

Zhang Kuo’s point is clear: applications are the scarcest and most valuable part of AI .

He used the internal combustion engine and the car as an analogy: " After the birth of the first internal combustion engine, the most important thing in the world was not to manufacture the second, third ... and the ten thousandth internal combustion engine. The most important thing was to turn a faster carriage into the first car . " Zhang Kuo believes that AI foreign trade is the process of "manufacturing the first car . "

Foreign trade is an excellent application scenario for AI . Traditionally, foreign trade links are long and involve a lot of complicated work with clear objectives but high repetitiveness, such as product selection and delivery, operational communication, etc., and also involve issues such as multilingual environments and time differences. However, when foreign trade companies hand over these complicated tasks to AI , all problems are solved, and foreign trade personnel can be freed up to do more important things such as product development and market selection.

As a result, domestic trade companies that have no foreign trade experience can quickly master foreign trade skills with the help of AI , and companies located in remote areas can also quickly solve the problem of recruiting personnel.

Such examples can be found everywhere on Alibaba International Station. For example, Xu Jingqian, a "old factory worker" born in the 1960s who does machinery export in Yiwu, is one of the first to "take the lead in AI." With the help of the AI ​​"business assistant" in selecting products, he received orders of 110,000 US dollars a month after the new product was launched. His new employee born in the 2000s also received his first big order overnight with the help of the AI ​​"business assistant."

Deep integration of supply chains will bring a new trillion-dollar market

With the improvement of AI , Alibaba International Station is further helping merchants find incremental overseas markets.

Currently, B2B is the main track for going overseas. The scale of B2B exports supported by Alibaba International Station reached 350 billion US dollars last year , and the online transaction volume was close to 50 billion US dollars. On the basis of such a large scale, the GMV and business opportunities of Alibaba International Station in January and February this year are still growing rapidly . Zhang Kuo believes that in addition to the current mature customization track of Alibaba International Station, there is also a trillion-dollar spot wholesale market.

In this market, a large number of retailers and service providers have the need for spot wholesale purchases, but they have high requirements for deterministic transaction experience. Zhang Kuo believes that it is necessary to deeply integrate the supply chain to truly meet their needs and bring a new trillion-dollar incremental market to Chinese merchants.

To this end, Alibaba International Station launched a semi-hosted service at the beginning of this year. Based on the integration of the supply chain, it works with merchants to provide overseas buyers with a new B2B purchasing experience with fixed prices, on-time delivery, and guaranteed after-sales service . Whether it is a domestic or foreign trade merchant, as long as they have spot stock and can ship within 3/7 days, they can join Alibaba International Station's semi-hosted service.

Currently, the first phase of B2B semi -hosted products has been launched in the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, France, Germany and other European and American markets. All products that join the semi-hosted products will be marked with the "Alibaba Guaranteed " label, indicating the accurate price, certain logistics timeliness and after-sales guarantee service. After the launch, the semi-hosted products quickly attracted a group of new overseas buyers.

"Our hair accessories category is very suitable for hosting. We have spot goods and inventory, and we also have our own factory. When I heard that the international station was going to do semi-hosting, I immediately signed up for more than 100 products for semi-hosting." Xie Yin, general manager of Yiwu Yinhongjing Jewelry Co., Ltd., is one of the first merchants to try out the semi-hosting business of Alibaba International Station.

On the first day of the semi-hosted service, a new customer from Germany placed an order for a batch of acetic acid hair claws directly in Xie Yin's store. Xie Yin said with a smile, "I finally know what it means to make money while lying down. We are sleeping here, and the customer is placing an order here."

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Compared with the various "hosting services" currently available overseas , Alibaba International Station's semi-hosting covers a wider range of industries, and merchants can still set their own prices and operate independently. This provides convenience for a large number of foreign trade entrepreneurs who want to do long-term business. They can quickly use the platform's capabilities to start their own foreign trade business.

(Photo: Zhang Kuo, President of Alibaba International Station)

Zhang Kuo believes that B2B export is a long-term business, and Alibaba International Station has always served real entrepreneurs who have entrepreneurial spirit and want to do long-term business.

In the future , the comprehensive intelligence brought by AI and the deep integration of the supply chain will greatly lower the threshold for this high-profit, long-term sustainable business and comprehensively improve efficiency, and more companies will be able to participate in going overseas.

Alibaba International Station

AI

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