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JD.com Inc (JD) released its first-quarter earnings report on May 12th, revealing that significant investments in AI technology have put substantial pressure on profit performance, sparking widespread market discussion. A few days later, at the JD 618 promotional event kickoff on May 18th, the company's management disclosed that JD's research and development expenditure in the AI field for 2026 is projected to achieve a year-on-year growth exceeding 200%, positioning its investment scale within the industry's top tier.

Subsequently, on May 27th, Richard Liu, the founder of JD.com, stated in an internal address: "Not a single frontline employee replaced by robots will be dismissed." This stance presents a stark contrast to the prevailing industry trend of AI-driven layoffs and cost-cutting.

On one side is a continuously intensified and bold AI strategy, and on the other is a commitment to human-centric principles, resisting industry-wide "involution" with a pledge of compassion. These two events outline JD.com's unique developmental logic, which avoids the shortcut of "technology replacing labor and sacrificing employees for profits."

It is worth pondering that Liu's statement is likely not merely an emotional appeal but a strategic choice shaped by multiple factors including the industry environment, internal development, and strategic positioning. It represents a necessary arrangement for JD.com's differentiated competition as AI commercialisation enters a challenging phase in 2026.

The "Zero Dismissal" Pledge

By 2026, AI commercialisation has entered a deep-water zone. "Technology replacing labor" is no longer an industry conjecture but a harsh reality sweeping the globe. Against the backdrop of major global corporations普遍 leveraging AI to streamline workforces and compress costs, the employment底线 proposed by Liu in his internal speech breaks the industry's established rules: "Not a single frontline employee replaced by robots will be dismissed. We will try every possible means to secure the livelihoods of our brothers."

This statement is not just an口头 concept but a rigid strategy supported by a comprehensive implementation system. JD.com currently has over 900,000 active employees, with 550,000 being frontline blue-collar workers in logistics, warehousing, sorting, and line-haul transportation—positions most directly and集中 impacted by automation and large language model advancements. Addressing the industry's AI substitution dilemma, Liu outlined three strategic bottom lines:

Regardless of how intelligent and automated technologies普及, the company will prioritize safeguarding the employment positions of grassroots employees,坚决 avoiding mass reductions of blue-collar teams under the pretext of technological迭代; adhering to the principle of "position elimination, personnel retention" for roles reduced due to AI replacement, with the company centrally reassigning all employees displaced by智能设备, aiming for zero主动 layoffs; formally launching the "Nirvana Project," establishing over 80 robotics skills training bases nationwide to provide frontline employees with free specialized training in智能设备 operation and maintenance, robot maintenance, and智能系统 operation, systematically推动 the transition of traditional blue-collar workers into technical roles, achieving a "blue-collar to white-collar" upgrade.

Discussing the生存现状 of grassroots workers, Liu acknowledged the奔波辛劳 and difficulty of frontline jobs, publicly setting a long-term vision: two decades from now, JD.com will remain committed to its初心, aiming to be the enterprise absorbing the most employment in China,深耕 the physical fulfillment track, and becoming the largest physical world operator domestically.

Liu's "brotherhood culture" has been a significant hallmark in JD.com's development history, extending beyond slogans to体现 in a series of substantive福利 and institutional arrangements, such as fully covering social security and housing fund contributions for all frontline couriers and delivery personnel, and providing housing保障. In the current AI替代潮 where人人自危, this "brotherhood culture" once again positions JD.com as a rare头部 enterprise sharing technological红利 with its entire workforce.

Sustained Growth in R&D Investment

Behind Liu's承诺 lies JD.com's全链路, substantial hard investment in AI.

In the first quarter of 2026, JD.com's overall R&D expenses reached a significant 6.9 billion yuan, a substantial 48.6% year-on-year increase from 4.6 billion yuan in Q1 2025. The earnings report attributed this primarily to the company's持续投入 in technological capabilities and talent.

Despite high-intensity technological investment, JD.com continues to坚持 its labor-intensive development model. Fulfillment expenses (mainly包括 procurement, warehousing, delivery, customer service, and payment processing costs) for Q1 2026 were 23.4 billion yuan, an 18.5% year-on-year increase from 19.7 billion yuan in Q1 2025. Fulfillment expenses as a percentage of revenue increased from 6.6% in Q1 2025 to 7.4% in Q1 2026. The report stated this was mainly due to the company's持续优化 of fulfillment capabilities and increased人力投入 to enhance user experience.

This has shaped JD.com's development pattern of heavily investing in AI technological迭代 while坚守 its human-centric employment底线.

To date, JD.com's AI applications已覆盖 over 3,000 scenarios including retail, logistics, healthcare, industry, food delivery, and home services, making it one of the companies with the broadest AI application coverage and strongest industrial厚度.

At the data layer, JD.com is building the world's largest embodied intelligence data collection center, mobilizing 600,000 people for data collection, aiming to accumulate 10 million hours of real-scenario video data within two years, constructing an生态闭环 of "data collection - model training - data optimization." At the computing power layer, JD.com has built a全栈 AI product matrix, including the JoyAgent intelligent agent platform and JoyScale computing power platform. At the model layer, the JoyAI foundational large model is already widely used across multiple business scenarios, while vertical models like the JD Logistics Super Brain large model and Jingyi Qianxun medical large model are also creating significant value across various industries.

Regarding user experience, JD.com's self-developed AI agent "Jingyan" had nearly 80 million active users in Q1 2026, a year-on-year growth exceeding 200%. JD.com also launched the AI Home scenario product group植入 with embodied intelligence JoyInside, planning to implant it into over 10 million smart hardware devices in 2026.

JD Group CFO Shan Su明确 stated during the Q1 earnings call that the company places great importance on R&D investment, particularly in AI, with Q1 R&D expenses continuing to rise significantly. He预计 that R&D expenses will maintain a持续增长的态势 in the foreseeable future. These investments will gradually translate into operational红利, achieving AI-driven efficiency improvements, and driving overall expense structure improvements.

On AI application, JD Group CEO Xu Ran stated that regardless of how technology evolves—whether agents assist users in completing purchases or users do it themselves—the underlying logic of the retail industry will not change. It will始终 revolve around experience, cost, and efficiency, meeting users' pursuit of price and service.

In her view, this is also the core moat built by JD.com over the past two decades through深耕 its supply chain. The future will involve leveraging new technologies like AI, robotics, and automation to持续提升 user experience while simultaneously reducing operational costs and improving efficiency.

Short-Term Profit Pressure

The持续增长的 R&D investment and人力成本 also bring现实问题.

For Q1 2026, net profit attributable to the company's ordinary shareholders was 5.1 billion yuan, a 53% decline from 10.9 billion yuan in the same period last year. Under non-GAAP measures, net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 7.4 billion yuan, a 43.5% year-on-year decrease.

Regarding revenue, JD Group achieved revenue of 315.7 billion yuan, a 4.9% year-on-year increase. From a business structure perspective, JD Group's operating revenue primarily consists of two parts: product revenue and service revenue. In Q1, JD Group's product revenue was 244.819 billion yuan, a 1.0% year-on-year increase; service revenue was 70.875 billion yuan, a significant 20.6% year-on-year increase.

It is evident that the growth momentum of service revenue is显著强于 product revenue. Although its proportion of total revenue规模 remains relatively low, the持续提升 of high-margin service business revenue is推动 JD.com's overall revenue structure不断优化.

JD Group's product and service revenues are also分别包含 two major categories each. Product revenue includes electronics and home appliance product收入, and daily necessities product收入. Service revenue includes platform and advertising service收入, and logistics and other service收入. Among the four细分领域, all achieved double-digit growth except for electronics and home appliance product收入, which同比下跌 8.4%.

Management stated during the earnings call that from a long-term perspective, the带电品类 still has room for利润率提升. The company will also持续推进 the healthy development of its platform ecosystem. The rapid growth of高利润率的收入 like commissions and advertising will drive利润率提升. JD.com's monetization rate remains at a relatively low industry level, with significant room for improvement.

From a segment data perspective, JD Retail continues to shoulder the重任 of contributing the majority of the company's revenue and profit.

In Q1 2026, JD Retail revenue was 268.588 billion yuan, a 1.8% year-on-year increase. Operating profit was 14.96 billion yuan, a 16.5% year-on-year increase.推动 by its不断优化的 structure, the operating profit margin climbed to 5.6%, reaching a historical high. Compared to同期利润率 of 4.1% in 2024 and 4.9% in 2025, the retail segment's profitability持续迭代升级, with high-margin businesses like daily necessities and platform advertising performing亮眼,支撑 the group's基本盘.

JD Logistics achieved revenue of 60.581 billion yuan in Q1 2026, a 29% year-on-year increase. Operating profit was 1.02 billion yuan, a substantial 603% increase from 145 million yuan in the same period last year. The operating profit margin improved from 0.3% to 1.7%.

Losses from the New Businesses segment, however,拉低了 JD.com's overall profit level. In Q1, the company's New Businesses (including JD外卖, JD产发,京喜, and overseas e-commerce) achieved revenue of 6.279 billion yuan, a 9.1% year-on-year increase; operating loss was 10.35 billion yuan, nearly 8 times larger than the loss in the same period last year. JD.com explained this by noting that JD Logistics acquired the本地实时配送业务 originally belonging to New Businesses in October last year. Starting from Q1 this year, external instant delivery service revenue from New Businesses was formally调入 the logistics segment.

Shan Su revealed during the earnings call that in Q1 this year, while maintaining healthy规模, JD's外卖业务 also achieved its largest sequential quarter-on-quarter减亏 since its inception, with its excellent model明显改善. In terms of外卖收入, with operational improvements and完善 of the advertising system, commission and advertising收入 generated by the外卖业务环比增长接近两倍 in Q1.

"JD's外卖业务 will最终 achieve profitability," Shan Su emphasized, stating that JD外卖 is not an independent business. The company is持续加快释放 the synergistic value of the外卖 business.外卖 and "instant retail" are important long-term strategic directions for JD.com, and the company will推动 the healthy development of these businesses with a long-term perspective.

Concluding Analysis

These data points无疑显示 that JD.com依然 possesses a稳健的基本盘. However, nowadays, JD.com's core competitiveness is no longer局限于 its traditional supply chain and retail advantages. The多元业务加速成长 driven by its AI technological硬实力 has become its core底气 for navigating industry cycles.

Liu's "no layoff"承诺 is not an脱离商业逻辑的理想主义 but is built upon a complete落地体系 including the "Nirvana Project," internal job transfers, and systematic skills training,具备落地基础. However, it is undeniable that JD.com will still face现实挑战: On one hand, the large-scale transition of traditional blue-collar employees to technical roles involves a significant技能鸿沟, requiring long-term投入与时间沉淀 for全员升级. On the other hand, the持续高额成本 of AI R&D and人力履约 will持续压制 profit performance for some time to come.

Sacrificing短期利润 for长期布局 is JD.com's core choice in the AI era. The company is also验证 a new possibility: technological升级 and employee成长 are not完全对立. Can corporate technological革新,业绩增长, and social responsibility achieve long-term共生共赢?