Alibaba Launches AI-Powered Agent To Automate Merchant Operations

Alibaba Group’s BABA international commerce arm launched the Accio Agent on Thursday to help merchants source products and supplies, aiming to transform online business operations.

Built by Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC) on its Qwen model, the AI agent can automate up to 70% of traditionally time-consuming tasks such as product ideation, prototyping, compliance checks, and supplier sourcing.

The company said Accio Agent could fundamentally change product discovery, e-commerce, and advertising as rivals like Amazon.com AMZN roll out their AI agents, SCMP reported on Thursday.

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The release follows AIDC’s earlier launch of Accio, a B2B search engine now used by over 2 million merchants. It comes as Alibaba races to integrate AI across business units to improve efficiency and lower costs.

Yet the push comes amid intensifying challenges. Like other Chinese tech firms, Alibaba is contending with a domestic “AI talent war,” losing senior researchers to competitors while geopolitical tensions add further pressure.

Rival tech companies have been actively poaching from Alibaba’s Tongyi Lab, the team behind its open-source Qwen models. Notable departures include Yan Zhijie, former head of Tongyi’s speech lab, who joined JD.com JD after a brief stint at Tencent TCEHY, and Bo Liefeng, former head of applied vision, who moved to Tencent’s Hunyuan AI model team.

In response, Alibaba has launched its Star Top Talent Recruitment and Development Programme to attract elite AI researchers, as competition from ByteDance, Tencent, and JD.com escalates.

Geopolitical headwinds are also shaping the AI landscape. Beijing is pressuring major Chinese tech firms, including Alibaba and ByteDance, to justify buying Nvidia’s NVDA H20 AI chips instead of domestic alternatives, prompting some to consider cutting orders.

Regulators, led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, have discouraged H20 use in government or security projects while pushing Huawei and Cambricon chips. Meanwhile, DeepSeek delayed the launch of its R2 AI model after Huawei’s Ascend chips failed in training, forcing the startup to use Nvidia processors instead.

Despite Huawei sending engineers to assist, the issues left its hardware usable only for inference, highlighting limits in China’s push to replace U.S. technology.

Alibaba stock gained over 44% year-to-date, topping the NYSE Composite Index’s 9% returns as its cloud computing and AI divisions gain traction.

Price Actions: BABA stock is trading lower by 1.05% to $120.99 premarket at last check on Friday.

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