Alibaba Unveils AI-Powered Search Engine for Global B2B Sourcing

Alibaba reportedly unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engine designed to help small businesses in Europe and the Americas source supplies.

Dubbed Accio, the search engine finds wholesale products in response to businesses’ text or image prompts, CNBC reported Tuesday (Nov. 12), saying it had viewed demonstrations of this new offering. The search engine also provides information about the products’ popularity with consumers and projected profit.

Alibaba did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The initial version of Accio is web-based and supports English, German, French, Portuguese and Spanish, according to the CNBC report.

The search engine uses Alibaba’s large language model, Tongyi Qianwen, the report said. Its data comes from 50 million businesses on Alibaba International’s platform as well as publicly available information.

The Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group said in a July 31 press release that it planned to launch an AI-powered “conversational sourcing engine” that would facilitate the global B2B sourcing process for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

“Traditional search engines evaluate web page importance through interlinking, credibility and ad spend,” Kuo Zhang, president of Alibaba.com, said in the release. “In this AI era, the B2B sourcing engine offers an intuitive and organic way to query, as well as rapidly and accurately match business buyers and business sellers based on their proven track record.”

It was reported in July that Alibaba Group is using generative AI to strengthen its renewed efforts to expand overseas.

The company is using the technology for tasks like providing translations for sellers on its platform, creating marketing materials, selecting merchandise, interacting with customers, negotiating refunds and returns, and handling customer disputes of bank charges.

It reported that internal tests showed that some AI applications — such as those helping sellers communicate in foreign languages — contributed to a 30% increase in orders for merchants.

Alibaba’s release of over 100 open-source AI models and text-to-video technology signals its growing focus on AI for digital commerce, PYMNTS reported in September.

The move could democratize access to advanced AI tools, particularly benefiting SMBs, and provide them with new resources for customer engagement and content creation in online retail and marketing.

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