Alibaba Will Combine AI Platform and eCommerce Marketplace

Chinese conglomerate Alibaba is reportedly planning to integrate its Qwen artificial intelligence platform and online marketplace Taobao.

This move is aimed at promoting eCommerce through conversations instead of keyword searches, Reuters reported Saturday (May 9), citing a source familiar with the matter.

According to the report, the change will let consumers browse, compare and purchase items via the Qwen app by talking with the AI agent, rather than ⁠manually combing through product listings.

Qwen will get access to the Taobao and ⁠Tmall catalog of more than 4 billion products, supported by a “skills library” that can manage logistics and after-sales ​services and offer recommendations based on order history and shopping preferences, Reuters added.

The report noted that this push into AI-fueled eCommerce underlines a gap between Chinese and Western online shopping platforms.

While the Chinese model lets ​AI embed itself into live transactions, platforms are more fragmented in the U.S., Reuters added. For example, ‌Amazon has used AI to ​improve shopping within ​its marketplace but is still cautious about complete autonomy.

As covered here last week, Amazon is reportedly weighing a hybrid mode to its Rufus assistant that would add AI-generated commentary directly above traditional search results for certain queries. This would let shoppers receive a conversational summary without being routed into Rufus as a standalone experience.

Amanda Doerr, Amazon’s vice president of core shopping, told The Information the company is working out when to guide shoppers to Rufus and when to keep them in conventional results.

Meanwhile, Shopify permits the use of external AI ​agents instead of operating an integrated consumer AI platform, Reuters added.

The company is the only platform simultaneously powering selling within ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and Google from a single system of record. During the first quarter of the year, AI-driven traffic to Shopify stores grew eight times year over year, according to earnings results, while orders from AI-powered searches increased nearly 13-fold.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that more than a third of Gen Z consumers and so-called AI “power users” now start their daily tasks on dedicated AI platforms first, including content discovery. This is not to enhance Google search, but to replace it.

As PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote earlier this year, 41% of consumers say they have used dedicated AI platforms for product discovery, while one third of shoppers say they have fully replaced their older methods.

“They’re not layering AI on top of old habits,” Webster wrote. “They’re shutting the door and leaving them behind.”