E-commerce firms rush to leverage smart tech

Companies bank on cutting-edge tools to boost efficiency, sales

Chinese e-commerce platforms are scrambling to leverage fast-developing artificial intelligence technologies to help in the digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises, while boosting production efficiency and revving up product sales, experts said.

Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's business-to-business online trading platform 1688 said it has integrated Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's open-source large language model into its system, with plans to gradually provide related services to merchants starting mid-February.

The platform also announced that all AI-powered products offered to merchants will be free, while its newly introduced AI digital employees will help merchants improve the efficiency and intelligence level of management, and reduce operational costs.