Alibaba Introduces AI Agents for E-commerce Merchants on Taobao and Tmall

Alibaba Group Holding announced plans to provide AI agents to merchants on its Taobao and Tmall platforms, aiming to create an autonomous digital workforce. The service, based on the Business Advisor tool, is scheduled for release by the end of March and will offer 24/7 automation for tasks such as customer support, voucher distribution, and dynamic pricing adjustments. The initiative was revealed at the Tmall TopTalk merchant summit in Shanghai, where Xu Haipeng, head of merchant platforms for Taobao and Tmall, highlighted that advancements in AI capabilities, like those seen with OpenClaw, are enabling execution-oriented AI. He projected that within one to two years, e-commerce operations will increasingly involve collaboration between human and digital employees. This move is part of Alibaba's broader strategy to enhance its merchant ecosystem and expand its user base through AI integration, positioning the company to maintain its leadership in China's competitive online marketplace sector. Taobao and Tmall are the largest e-commerce platforms in China, and this development reflects a trend toward leveraging AI to streamline business processes and adapt to emerging digital economies.