Alibaba’s AI Revolution: The Unforgetable Shopping Adventure.
Alibaba’s e-commerce portals use sophisticated AI to choose which items to display to customers when they visit and search for products they want to buy. It does this by building a custom page view for every visitor, aimed at showing them items they will be interested in, at prices that seem right.
By monitoring customer actions – whether they make a purchase, browse to a different item or leave the site – it learns in real-time to make adjustments to these page views to increase the probability of the visit ending in a purchase. To train its e-commerce portals to show visitors pages that are likely to result in a sale, Alibaba has deployed a form of semi-supervised learning known as reinforcement learning on its Taobao portal.
Alibaba’s AI offering is called Machine Learning Platform for AI, which offers solutions for businesses wanting to take advantage of cognitive computing functions such as natural language processing and computer vision, without the upfront costs of directly investing in infrastructure.
With millions of different items on sale across its sites, Alibaba has invested in automated content generation, also called Automated Sales Copy, to ease the burden of writing descriptions for everything it sells. The tools are also available to third-party sellers on its platforms. Its AI copywriter uses natural language processing algorithms running on deep learning neural networks to produce 20,000 lines of copy in a second. There are other AI projects that Alibaba has been working on:
AI Customer Support
"AliMe," Alibaba's AI chatbot, offers 24/7 customer support. It understands customer inquiries, reducing response times and allowing merchants to focus on boosting sales.
AI-Powered Logistics
Cainiao, Alibaba's logistics arm, uses 700 robots for efficient order processing and lightning-fast deliveries. They are also testing drones and driverless vehicles for future advancements.
The Path to the Future
Alibaba's Hema grocery stores offer 30-minute deliveries and facial-recognition payments. T-mall pop-up stores provide captivating "Retailtainment" experiences, bridging the online and offline worlds.
The company aims to create 100 million jobs, support 10 million businesses, and serve 2 billion consumers globally. To achieve this, they will invest in attracting and retaining AI talent.
Conclusions
Alibaba's AI revolution is transforming the retail industry, offering an extraordinary shopping adventure. With its focus on AI and commitment to attracting top talent, Alibaba is set to shape the future of retail and create unforgettable experiences for customers worldwide.
