Nearly two years after Alibaba made "AI-driven" its core strategy, the AI-powered e-commerce era envisioned by Jack Ma is rapidly materializing. Many merchants have already reaped benefits during this year's Tmall Double 11, the first major shopping festival where AI has been fully integrated.
The Tmall business head of Robam Appliances revealed that during this year's Double 11, nearly the entire Tmall team relied on AI Business Assistant for daily operations, including consulting on business issues, store inspections, customer service responses, and more. The tool significantly saved time and effort, improving overall operational efficiency by at least twofold.
According to sources from Taotian Group, over 5 million merchants have adopted AI tools provided by Taobao and Tmall for daily operations since the start of Double 11. This year, Taobao upgraded its AI merchant tool, "Business Assistant," introducing an "AI Store Manager" and six specialized "AI employees" (AI Data Analyst, AI Marketing Operator, AI Audience Operator, AI Designer, AI Customer Service, and AI Order Handler). These AI agents offer comprehensive support, with the AI Store Manager providing real-time insights, risk diagnostics, and opportunity identification during promotions. The system has generated 5 million promotional strategies, reducing workload by 30% and boosting efficiency by 1.5x.
Beyond operational tools, Taobao and Tmall also enhanced AI-driven marketing. Alimama, Alibaba’s big data marketing platform, upgraded its in-house AI model, LMA2, and transformed "Full-Site Promotion" into "Product-Wide Promotion," reshaping product marketing strategies. According to Hubao, General Manager of Alimama’s Brand Business, AI now optimizes every stage of ad placement—from targeting to bidding, auctions, data analysis, and creative generation.
During Double 11, "Product-Wide Promotion" helped over a million products achieve a 30%+ sales surge. Midea’s flagship store, for instance, saw a 150% spike in direct sales on the first day, with ROI exceeding 100%. Additionally, Alimama’s Uni Desk platform facilitated cross-platform marketing, enabling brands to attract new customers outside Taobao while seamlessly linking ad campaigns to e-commerce conversions. Data shows that external traffic conversion rates reached up to 70% during the event.
AI customer service has emerged as a key application of large language models, with Taotian’s "Dian Xiaomi" chatbot handling 300 million consumer inquiries during Double 11—100 million of which were fully automated. Features like purchase recommendations, product comparisons, and logistics tracking improved merchant conversion rates by 30%. One 3C retailer reported a drop in manual intervention rates below 30% and faster promotional setup—from days to hours—after adopting Dian Xiaomi.
Kaifeng, head of Taobao Tmall’s Dian Xiaomi operations, noted that AI helps manage peak-period inquiries without the need for extensive temporary staffing, ensuring stable 24/7 service while prioritizing high-value interactions for human agents.
AI is demonstrably enhancing e-commerce efficiency, particularly in this year’s AI-integrated Double 11. As Tmall’s president Jialuo stated, the shopping festival is undergoing a fundamental shift—from traffic and discounts to AI-driven, data-powered operational capabilities.