In this episode, I speak with Ziwei Chen, product marketing lead for Accio Work at Alibaba.com, about Alibaba’s effort to turn decades of sourcing data and commerce know-how into an agentic business platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Accio began as an AI sourcing engine, but Accio Work is designed to support a broader workflow, from product strategy and supplier selection to store operations, marketing and growth.

The most interesting distinction is between AI that tells a business owner what to do and AI that actually does the work. Ziwei explains how agents can research products, compare and vet suppliers, draft inquiries, follow up on missing answers, update Shopify listings, generate structured data and coordinate campaigns across existing tools. Alibaba’s advantage is not only its supplier network, but the category knowledge, transaction context and direct communication layer built around it.

We also discuss where human judgment remains essential. Accio Work can narrow a supplier list, negotiate across variables such as MOQ, lead time and materials, and prepare an order, but the user still approves purchases and typically takes over the final supplier relationship. That balance matters because commerce is not only a workflow problem: branding, product taste, trust and long-term supplier relationships remain difficult to automate.

Finally, we explore why Alibaba built Accio as a separate, more open product; how it works with third-party platforms rather than replacing them; its subscription and usage-based model; and the future of agentic commerce across B2B and B2C. Ziwei’s non-consensus view is a useful one: not every problem needs AI, and domain expertise becomes more valuable, not less, when powerful tools are widely available.

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Chapters

00:00 Introducing Accio Work01:01 From Alibaba.com to agentic commerce05:18 What an “agentic business team” does06:27 The commerce workflow and human control11:11 “Do it for me” versus “tell me what to do”18:32 Connecting fragmented commerce tools22:36 Alibaba’s sourcing-data advantage26:03 Supplier quality, matching and verification31:58 Accio versus general-purpose AI tools33:36 How agents communicate with suppliers37:09 What Accio offers factories and suppliers39:29 Designing AI for non-technical SMEs42:42 Business model and monetization43:54 The future of agentic commerce48:57 Why not every problem needs AI

AI-generated transcript for reference only

Grace Shao (00:00)

Hi, Ziwei. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Ziwei Chen (00:02)

Hi Grace, so good to see you.

Grace Shao (00:07)

I’m excited to talk about Accio So I just came back from Hangzhou like a month ago and I met some with some of your colleagues on the ground. Was very impressed by the product and thought was just really intuitive. So let’s get started. Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Accio and what Accio is all about.

Ziwei Chen (00:24)

Well, hi everyone. my name is Ziwei Chen. I work at Alibaba.com as the product marketing lead for Accio Work. prior to Alibaba.com, I actually spent a few years in the world of developer marketing where I was kind of driving good market plans for software tools that are meant for developers who are building AI products. So now it’s kind of completing the whole picture for me to now move on to the other side about actually growing the products. built by those developers to the end users. So that’s kind of my kind of AI journey coming from the development side now to the end user side, driving the growth for Accio Work among our small and medium-sized businesses around the world.

Grace Shao (01:01)

And tell us, what does Accio do actually? So I think a lot of people are not familiar with it and just how it fits into the whole bigger, I guess, Alibaba ecosystem as well.

Ziwei Chen (01:09)

Yes, absolutely. So maybe I’ll take a quick pause and take a step back just to talk about the overall broader picture. So Alibaba grew as a large enterprise. we were founded in 1999, and our kind of main North Star was to make make it easy to do business everywhere. So that has always been kind of our focus of focusing on B2B and focusing on small and medium-sized businesses who typically don’t have that resources that large enterprises have. So throughout the years since 1999, we have been really just focusing on what we can do, either there’s a new product. And new services to make it easier for them to start a business, to launch a business, and to grow a business, maybe something to exit a business. So along that line, Alibaba.com is kind of the bread and butter where we first started, focusing on B2B sourcing. So actually, I will kind of almost break down our development or our growth journey into three eras and then show you where Accio fit. I will call it the digitization era, the AI co-pilot era, and then the agentic team era. So the first digitization is when we are first founded with that platform of Alibaba.com where on this digital platform we are connecting the sellers or what we call the suppliers, the factories, with the buyers, our buyers, maybe sellers on the other side, into one platform. So now they’re not limited by time zone, they’re not limited by the location. And then in that process, we what we have learned over the years is that things can get overwhelming. There just so many suppliers, so many products, right? So then when all of these foundational AI capabilities came about, we were like, okay, this is the moment. This is the moment where we can introduce AI capabilities to make it easier for our buyers to find the right products and the right suppliers. So the name Accio actually comes from Latin, which means summon. So the idea is we help you summon the right products, summon the right suppliers, summon the right information. So that’s when we first launched Accio as a sourcing engine back in November of 2024. And that went really well because a lot of our users now, even without any experience in sourcing, without any experience in physical products, and find it really quickly with confidence. But then what we had learned over time is that First, sourcing is only one small part of a broader business journey, right, for a lot of our users in the US, Europe, and around the world. So now we’re thinking, okay, what else can we do to expand on that? So that led to kind of the last phase for Accio Work. So when I compare Accio Work with Accio, a few things that stood out. The first is the focus from sourcing only to sourcing plus. The other thing is about the agentic part. So earlier when I talked about the three phases of digitization as a platform, right? The website. And then the second era is called the AI co-pilot. So that means is that you are still on the driver’s seat, AI is in the passenger seat. It’s giving you advice, it’s doing some little stuff for you, but you are still making all the decisions. You’re still wearing all the hats. And that’s what Accio did back then. For example, it can find suppliers, it can recommend messages for you, but that’s kind of it. So now we’re moving into what we call the agentic team era. where actually we’re gonna get things done for you and get more types of work done for you. so that’s kind of where we are really sort of moving into this phase, where truly kind of it’s like the spirit of the agentic commerce world, where you’re not only using AI as a passenger seat, but you’re actually arranging a team of agents to get things done and maybe let the teams work among themselves, what we call A2A. So that’s kind of the overall context of where we have been starting from Alibaba.com. To Accio the sourcing engine and now to Accio Work as the Agentic business team.

Grace Shao (04:45)

That’s very comprehensive over you. I appreciate that. So just to help listeners understand, 1688 and Alibaba.com are the sourcing kind of platform within Alibaba. And then obviously everyone knows Alibaba for the Taobao and commerce side of things, but that’s actually a merchant-facing product versus the Taobao and T-mall that are consumer-facing. with that kind of context, okay, so if I had to ask you to describe it in a very short sentence or like say two sentences. How would you actually describe the product today? It’s just like, who is it for? What does it do?

Ziwei Chen (05:18)

Absolutely. I think I would Start with three words that summarize what it is we will call it the agentic business team. and I’ll break it down each but one of them that eventually lead to the who and the how. So the agentic part means these are agents that get things done for you. It doesn’t just give you the recommendations, but it can write emails for you, send messages for you, publish things for you, right? And then the second part is business, right? So we are dedicated to the world business, specifically e-commerce as a really strong emphasis. an all all Aspects of business starting from the front development side to the growth side to the operations, everything. And then team part kind of aligning up to that as well is that you can build multiple agents to work among each other. So tip from a format perspective, we have a desktop app that you can download, also a web app as well. You can access the same thing on your mobile devices, on your web as well. So all these things are connected where you are creating agents on this platform. telling the agents what to do and then you can go to sleep, you can go to work, you can go to your events, right? All of these things, go to your shop, right? Do all these things while the agents are in the background running all these tasks assigned by you.

Grace Shao (06:27)

So exactly your point, like you can do a lot of things, and that’s what I found the most fascinating thing. So, you know, we know a lot of products on the market these days that can do a lot of the, I guess, step three, step four in selling. So what I mean by that is they can help you manage this SEO, the content management, the marketing, and the like, you know, plugging into Mailchimp and sending out your emails. But your edge really isn’t just the agentic AI part, what I thought is really your supply chain network, right? so of course Across the entire workflow right now. Like walk us through like the different steps. Cause I remember there was like a slide your colleague showed me. It was like there’s four different phases of commerce building a business. you guys can go across it and how much of it is actually truly a genetically run right now and how much of it is still, I guess, needing direction from a human to really verify and process in the pro yeah.

Ziwei Chen (07:17)

Break it down to the two parts. I’ll talk a little bit about the overall flow first. I think it can kind of follow a typical business like life cycle where you’re starting from the strategy and the planning part. Let’s say what product, what’s the portfolio, what’s your branding, right? What’s your competitor, what’s your positioning or pricing, all of that. And then into the actual product development and sourcing part of that. And then you’re going into your store management, especially your e-commerce and different marketplaces. And then eventually the last one will be for marketing and growth. it can be for your B2C. Your traffic, right? Your conversion. Also, some of our users are not only doing B2C, but also B2B to wholesale. So, how do you deal with that B2B, like management or relationship, all of that? And then, so that’s across the different core stages of run launching and running a business. And then Accio Work supports all of that, but not individually, but it connects to that all together. So that entire ecosystem play, right? It’s really where it stands out, where we call the sourcing plus. So it’s not just about SEO, right? It’s not just about how to improve, let’s say, the images on your store, but how do you do that starting from the moment you have an idea, bring it to life, bring it to your store, and then drive it to more users, and then maybe iterate over time all the way back to what other products you can do, or how can you make your current product better. And along this way, I think when it comes to which areas that are truly agentic, or kind of where does that relationship between human and agent do? I think that there are a few ways to go about it. So I think for example, all of the critical decisions or area still remains a human to be to approve. For example, you can develop or create an order. The agent can create an order on behalf of you. So you can just click and then go into the checkout page, but it will not check out for you. So you have to go in and confirm that or from a security perspective. That’s one example. The other example is about your own vision as a founder or as a brand owner. So let’s say it’s the position of your brand. Some of them can be subjective. Maybe it’s your personal story, your personal style of the brand. It can also be kind of that. More objective or critical thinking that after learning about different perspectives, this is where we decide to do. I think running a business is it is a lot about the science part, but it’s also the personal, the entrepreneurship, right? So a lot of these kind of personal decisions still plays a role. So for example, maybe the agent can develop all different kinds of images and videos on behalf of you, but how do you d determine what’s Good, it can be through A/B testing, right? But it can also just be this is kind of the aesthetic you are going for that you think what matters the most to your audience. So that’s a second example. I think the last one, taking another pause, I know that when we talk about human, it’s not just about the users, it can also be about the developers, right? It could be the people in the Accio Work team. And then so where we are seeing is that we put we will love for Accio Work, we are specifically targeting small and medium-sized business operators who are not. The strongest in AI tools. They’re not developers by training, right? That’s not where they want to dedicate their time to. So what our product team and engineering team and algorithm team have been really focusing on is what are the things that we can do it for you. So take the burden off of you. For example, in this broader ecosystem of everything that Accio Work can do, it does require a lot of connect connections to different channels and platforms right can be about marketplaces having different tools i think that ecosystem is where it really plays a really great job but then who is creating those connection points you know you can have your account but then from our perspective where our team spend a lot of our time is to build those connections so you can do a one-click activation to connect axial word to your email to your CRM to your Shopify store so that is one of the strategic areas where we decided to take more of a burden onto ourselves so our audience can just click and then log in and then start to connect the dots for themselves.

Grace Shao (11:11)

Very cool. I want to double click on the partnership and like how you guys built the plugins definitely a bit later. I do want to ask about the use cases because so here my brand. So when I went to visit you guys, there was like really it was really interesting. So on one hand, it was very obvious on how SMEs would use this, like you said, like you know, if you already have a very strong intent on how to what you want to purchase, what you want to sell, so then that whole process is very clear. But one Example one of your colleagues showed me was so fascinating. Basically, like they were running an event, someone was running an event using Accio. They went on the Accio like webpage and then basically uploaded a picture of like the banner, the physical banner like size of like an outdoor space and said, I don’t know how large this space is actually. I don’t know what looks the best with this background, but I need a banner to run this event. And then Accio became like a thought partner. And it was really interesting because it was not like just a general like AI like thought partner. It was actually someone that had a lot of know-how and industry know-how from creating these things, from manufacturing. So they would literally say, it seems like blah, blah, blah, the weather is like this and that. You might need this material because that kind of texture is more durable in the sun or durable in the rain. And I just thought that was so fascinating. and I just want to hear from you what use cases are most common and then beyond that, what are some like I guess not so mainstream use cases that you’ve seen that are quite fun and interesting.

Ziwei Chen (12:34)

I think when it comes to use cases, you know, we can break we can slice the pie in a lot of different ways. One way is about the specific type of like actions for a business owner to do, but I’ll take it a different approach to talk about I think just in general when it comes to agentic tools in general, I think there are two types of use cases where air comes into play. The first is like do it for me. And then the other is tell me what to do. So the do-it for me part is that I know exactly what to do. I know the specific steps. Either I’m just busy or I’m just one person, there’s not enough hands. So this is where AI does a really great job as a follower, but it can really scale for you, right? It can be, for example, When it comes to assessing different suppliers. If I’m just up one person, I can only s assess so many, but now the tools can do it for you. So what we are seeing in similar cases, it can be using Accio to find, evaluate, vet, and compare suppliers or products. It can be you up creating and updating listings, especially for those sellers. with categories that have multiple SKUs, multiple kind of products where I want to make an update to all of my marketplaces, all different colors, all different sizes, right? It’s really doing taking that repetitive work off their shoulder, but making sure things are consistent across different channels. can be creating content, right, on either social media, it can be about blogs, all of that. That’s one area. The other area that kind of really aligns well with what you’re saying is that tell me more. Like I don’t know what I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t even know what’s the right question to ask, or maybe I do know the right question, but maybe the LM itself did not have that training to start with. And this is where we are seeing a really strong aha moment from our users. And when I say users, it’s not only just people who are new to e-commerce or new to physicals or like products. That’s definitely the area where we have seen the most appreciation. But it can also be for even successful sellers or operators entering into a new category. And it happens a lot, right? Maybe extending your product line, maybe you successful exit once one brand entering into a new one. They all they they truly understand. the cost or the costly mistakes and how important that could be. So in both cases, what we are seeing is open-ended questions on this is kind of what I’m thinking, this is what I need, or just this is my store. Tell me what’s wrong, tell me what’s missing. And then lear first learning from actual work based on what we have seen in the space about key areas, key specs, key steps or things to flag. And also, I’ll tell you what’s wrong, or I’ll tell you what you should pay attention to, and then let me fix that for you. And I’ll show you a few examples. The first example about banner for sure makes a lot of sense. we had one, a similar case, but with a different flavor to that. We had a almost like a con like a product consultant. So he would take out new projects all the time. Very common, even as someone who’s experienced in the field, to enter into new categories. And he was helping a client with the bronze. plaque outside the building where you know there’s a building name or the history and all of that. And then so he it was a retro case where he’s already spent the time and the cost to pay for a designer to kind of put his client’s need into this kind of sizing and whatever. so he took the time, spent the money, sent it to the factory, and then realized that actually the font size did not work for readability purposes. So while he actually replicated that need into axial work. One of the first things that actually were told him is that depending on the technique for the for the font, is it going in or out from that plaque? here are his recommended size or the height of each each of these tags to make sure that you are following the best practices. And then he was like, Wow, I wish I had that when he was working on that project. So he can save not only the cost, because he had to redo the thing, repay the designer to fix it, but also lost weeks in between. So there’s lots of examples around that. They’re small, but they can be costly, right? Especially you’re busy, it’s your own money, you’re bootstrapping into your business. So that’s one example. The other one, it can be we recently had a had a user who was just who has a Shopify store and was just trying to see like what what can I do? What can I do with Accio Award? So he’s not someone who knows exactly this is a tool I’m gonna use for X, Y, and Z. He just pasted his Shopify link. To Accio Work and tell me what’s the low-hanging fruit. And Accio Work actually dig out a bunch of like very specific areas for improvement, especially when it comes to SEOs and GEO. For example, for all his images on his store, he was lacking the image alt tags, which is a really important thing for SEO purposes. There were thousands of images. And he was like, he knew that was kind of important, but he never really paid attention. But Axe Work was like, if with with this, now you can improve your ranking. And then in about a few hours, Accio Work did all of these tagging for him in the back end, on Shopify. And then the other thing was that his product was baby Like baby beddings or a baby clothes. So there’s a size guide. But then what actually work called out is that his size guide was just an image. It does not have structured data. So LLMs cannot read it, which means that he’s not getting any traffic when people, when new parents are searching about sizing for their babies, right? If it were baby clothes. So then he actually told me that he he started this task right before a drive, and it was an hour drive on the road, and then actually worked basically using that and One hour, recreated his size guide to make sure there’s structured data behind it. And then so far, he’s already seeing like new traffic from like LLMs or like AI, like what we call now the AEO, right? for the first time. So these are all really great examples of what I call like teach me what to do, or teach me kind of what I’m missing out on, where we are seeing lots of like aha moment from our users as well.

Grace Shao (18:32)

That’s incredible. I think I’m like absolutely in shock because I think a couple of years ago during COVID, I was like playing around with the idea of drop shipping things. I wanted to build this like pet shop store. But just like not having that kind of guidance is actually really daunting to start something new when you’re not in this space. And if you just had that kind of thought partner, that would be incredibly helpful. Actually, I want to ask you about the partnership thing you mentioned earlier. You talk it did kind of touch on, you know, there’s these plugins that are built in. at SEO will help the vendors actually distribute across different distribution channels. So walk us through that. Does that not kind of cannibalize your own business? Or are you is that not like, you know, you guys are not in the same category, you don’t see that? Like, how does that relationship work?

Ziwei Chen (19:16)

A few thoughts here. I think first thing first just putting Putting down our Alibaba.com hat and just think from the user’s perspective. I think one of the biggest learnings that we have had by looking at our e-commerce sellers in this space is fragmentation. It’s truly, and when I say fragmentation, it’s not just about multi-marketplace. Cause you know, some people have like a Shopify store or Etsy store, that’s one type, but also think about you have your storefront, you have your B2B sourcing side, you’re speaking with manufacturers and different messaging channels, and then maybe you have your own like CRM. System, you have your own, let’s say, analytics system, right? And the all of each of these might have its own very professional SaaS solutions already, or maybe they’re hiring a consultant for that. So I think a lot of their time is really spread thin by just connecting these dots. So I do think that’s even from a North Star perspective, connecting a dot, putting them into an ecosystem is ultimately what’s gonna drive benefits or impact to our users, which is what we want, right? So I think that has always been we feel confident in that direction. And on the other hand, I think just like how there are so many different startups or even statute companies focus on each one of these, just like how Alibaba.com, our bread and butter started from sourcing. So I think yes, we can choose to do everything on our own or which is gonna spread thin. Odd, right? Or we can choose to collaborate with them as well. Especially a lot of times maybe our users are already so familiar with an existing tool. So making them give up on and then transfer is one option, or maybe in the transitioning phase, right? Or maybe just as a collaboration to say, bring your tools into Accio Work with just one click and then you’re login, and now you can connect all the dots together. We are definitely seeing that, for example, we have a user who has their own kind of email, like like solution system where he was struggling partially because of setting up campaigns and take lot of time but also you know he’s using Accio Work for research for messaging and now he has to translate all of these learnings right into a different tool. So he just integrated that into Accio Work and use Accio War as a central hub of say I have a new product now establish a new email campaign establish a new SMS campaign and then this is my key message you go To those sites on behalf of me. So I think that consistency of I have a decision, I want to apply it across different platforms, is where it’s gonna bring the benefit to our users, while without making them transfer or give them everything in their ecosystem that they have built out over time. And I think in that process, what we are also benefiting or learning through those partnerships with those channels are also just like learning opportunities on what’s what’s the future of AI when it comes to different kinds of areas. I think a lot of those traditional SaaS solutions still have are also experimenting. So I think that also creates a really win-win collaboration like experimentational type of like collaboration of let’s see how what kind of new agentic behavior that maybe actual work introduced through our our plugin to the new platforms and now they are learning what else they can improve or enhance or ex or or in integrate into their own ecosystem as well. But ultimately, because the our sellers or users are using those tools back and forth, it’s a shared type of traffic that has that synergy in general.

Grace Shao (22:34)

Very fascinating. So so it’s.

Grace Shao (22:36)

It’s really the user experience first, but like Alibaba second in that sense. So let’s talk about Alibaba then. so it’s no secret ATT sits on top of like Alibaba supply network, you know, guys got transaction history, sourcing know-how, all the data in the world from e-commerce over the last two, three decades. how do we understand that? Like is that like huge edge for you guys? do you think you guys have leveraged Alibaba’s ecosystem to build your things out? How do you see that relationship?

Ziwei Chen (23:02)

I think in general, I would say that having our own like our own supply chain and our own learnings and the industry know-house is definitely like the biggest part about our remote. or the starting point of our remote. I don’t think it’s the only thing, but I think that sourcing plus storyline is something that we definitely want to keep in mind to differentiate from the rest. obviously at the same time, we also understand that Alibaba.com is only one of the marketplaces that our users might be sourcing from. So we’re also trying to make it more open in the sense that it actually where you can also search for suppliers and like products even outside of Alibaba.com’s ecosystem as well. but I think how that looks like into how that translates into kind of our own product experiences. So far we have briefly touched upon that industry know-how because we know all of these Category best practices. So no matter what kind of categories essentially we have experience in, you’re gonna get that intro that recommendation or that guidance along the way. That can also include negotiation and supplier communication. So for example, because right now through Accio Work, we have our AI Auto Chat function, meaning that now you can train the agent to conduct or multiple agents to conduct that sourcing process. Task on behalf of you. So instead of you having to stay up late, depending on time zone, asking or answering questions, you have 20 agents, right? Each speaking with the supplier, negotiating. And then when I say negotiation, it’s not just about the bulk order price. It can be about the sample cost. It can be about the lead time. It can be about your MOQ. It can be about different material flexibility. So all of these kind of How do you approach negotiation? How do you approach establishing credibility as someone new in the space? How do you nurture that relationship with the supplier? All of these longer term things. So it’s not just like you find a supplier, you place an order and you’re done. So that the overall growth journey is something that we see continues as our users’ business grow or kind of evolve over time. That’s one thing. I think the other thing again is kind of that. synergy or consistency across platforms where you made a change to your product because it happens quite often where you are updating your products, maybe because of your learning and the competitive space, sometimes learning from Accio Work, or it can be your suppliers are recommending the latest techniques to the production, like you know, capabilities that you’re incorporating that. So how do you make sure your communication on the production end is reflected to your marketplace? is reflected to your social media, is reflected to your community, to your newsletter. So I think that sourcing plus, kind of that type of like experience or that consistency is also where we see we take pride in as kind of that holistic experience or evolution for our users as well. and then so that’s something that we’re definitely taking pride in, keeping keeping it as our mode while expanding on How do we translate that know-how into every aspect of our users or our operators business lifecycle?

Grace Shao (26:03)

Yeah, actually I’m gonna double click on that. So Alibaba itself has cited one point five million verified suppliers, you know, more than something like four hundred million SKUs behind Accio. these are wild numbers. this is not even including other suppliers, right? Like you just mentioned. How do you maintain that data quality and actually how do you ensure there’s fairness in terms of like how you actually provide your users the right supplier network or the supplier contact because I don’t understand how the back end ends. you know, when I’m looking for say a hair clip, what comes up? How do I understand what goes behind the interface?

Ziwei Chen (26:40)

I think I’ll answer it in two different layers. So I’ll separate Alibaba.com where our supply chain network as one layer and then talk about how where actual work fits in. but starting from the Alibaba.com as our own network, it has we have established our own very comprehensive system for that verification. for example, for all of our verified suppliers, that verified batch means it’s being verified by a third party where they have submitted their like certificates, all of the requirements and the registries and all of that. That’s one example. And the second example is that for example for all of those like Trade Assurance or all of these things that we’re constantly evolving to make sure all of these things are available for you to make sure you know you can choose and also including a lot of so that’s kind of on our own network side that we have our own system. And then where Accio Word comes in because it’s a it’s a different name, right? It’s not called Alibaba.com So it offers a few different flavors. The first thing first is that in Accio Work, there isn’t any sponsorship or ads in place. Well in Alibaba.com, yes, there are those different placements, but Accio Work purposely decided not to do that to make sure you are getting recommendations based on the best matches of your requirements. So let’s say depending on where you are, sometimes you might be in an exploration phase. Let’s say, I’m interested in in building what was the other thing I looked for the other day? It was like Wooden bits for like board games. And I was like, I don’t even know like where to start. And then Accio can tell you. So here are the five key areas you should consider. Let me walk you through how to make each of these decisions first. And then let me match it with the right supplier. So don’t rush, let’s take it slow. Or it might be, I don’t know exactly what’s the model, what’s my location, what’s my MOQ, what’s my price training, etc., and then match it for me. So you’re what you’re gonna see in Accio Work is let’s say you have a list of five things, and then for each of these suppliers, are they three out of five, are they four out of five? And what else might be a recommendation? And this can be hard requirements. Let’s say it must be this model. it must be they must have expert experience in certain places. It can also be about preferences. Let’s say maybe you already have lots of factories in a certain region, and then you just prefer that this new factory for this new component is in the same region. So it’s easier for consolidation for shipping. So you can be a preferences. And those are areas where a regular label, right, doesn’t or tag doesn’t cover as well compared to an AI for LLM to process that for you. So that’s one that’s one area. And then the other area is that so that’s the first thing that actually baked in is that no ads just based on what fits the best, based on your matches. The other thing obviously is kind of having that third triangulation of data. So we do have this ability for you to vet a supplier on Accio Work, which means that what it’s gonna do, it’s it’s not only gonna search for in the back end for alibawa.com, like what kind of certificates they have, but let me go on a custom public records. Let me go in, let me go on social media, double check, do they have a presence? do they have they attended trade shows? So all of these additional data you don’t get from the platform, actually was pulling in. Compare notes to make sure you are making a confident decision on that end. so that’s the second thing. And the third layer again is that even with all of this fixed data, or sometimes could be outdated, or you just want to verify whether triple or triple check it, and that’s where that automatic communication comes in. Where now let let the agent directly speak to the suppliers on behalf of you, ask for photos of certificates, right? As for images of the factory if they don’t have any, triple check on all of these areas. So all of these three layers are how Accio Work is building a different experience to make sure you are making a more confident decision.

Grace Shao (30:28)

Okay, so why then was it so necessary to build a separate agent on top of Alibaba.com and 1688 instead of you know just adding a chat interface or conversation interface on top of I believe a lot of the Alibaba products that right now all have an AI chat bot it embedded in their product interface, but why was it so necessary to build a separate Accio?

Ziwei Chen (30:50)

Yeah, good question. I think A few things. the first is that maybe back to our North Star when it comes to that open ecosystem. I think having a separate brand or even of an identity is a must-have to make sure our supply chain is not limited to Alibaba.com and also our use cases are not just limited to sourcing. So that explains everything that Accio Work is doing by incorporating new supply chain options, partnerships, incorporating new connectors or services or like solutions together. I think that’s kind of the biggest thing itself. And I think the other side of the things is that when it comes to branding, to some extent, although we do have lots of existing Alibaba.com users adopting Accio Work for that new value add as well. But we are, Accio Work is really reaching a brand new group of audiences around the world. A lot of them are like net new, aspiring entrepreneurs. Who now realize that opening your business on your own is possible. So I think there’s a brand new type of like audiences that we’re reaching, with its own kind of the AI flavor of like a branding as well. So we’re building a community that is also beyond Alibaba.com.

Grace Shao (31:58)

That’s interesting. I have a bit of a a spicy question for you. Then what’s the difference really if I were a solo entrepreneur using ATSIO versus maybe I just get Claude then? I get Cowork.

Ziwei Chen (32:08)

That’s a great idea. I think a few thoughts here. The first thing first, the simple answer is that Accio Work is the only agentic platform now that has the official connection to Alibaba.com. So all the other AI tools, maybe they can search for some of these suppliers by using the browser extension and all of that, but they’re not gonna get all the back-end data about those suppliers and not gonna be able to directly communicate with the agents, cannot chat directly with them and also cannot connect the dots all across the board. I think that’s a the simple, the simple way out. But I think also because all of our team’s energy is super focused on this field. And I think in this world where everything is nothing, right? So by us putting all of our resources and energy into just supporting e-commerce, small and medium-sized businesses, we are making more progress, more in-depth progresses on just that ecosystem specifically. And I think in that phase, the connectors with the plugins are just one of the areas. The other one is the just the general industry best practices. And what I’m referring to is not just kind of what the platform has learned, but also the people in the ecosystem. we’re building a community, we’re sharing skills, very like or even sometimes building different agents and now you can learn from each other as well. So I think it’s not just about The data is about a community, it’s about a best practices as well. So people are learning from each other. all of those solopreneurs are aspiring entrepreneurs of how to start something and then grow from there.

Grace Shao (33:36)

So then I wanna ask you about something you mentioned, I think, in passing a couple of times, which is like the agents can help you speak to the suppliers. It was quite fascinating. how does that work in the back end? Like our are at this point are just like agents talking to agents and then making deals happen and then you know, you have a product that’s purchased for you and the next thing you know it’s already out there on a website. What does the human need to do still? So tell us about that.

Ziwei Chen (34:01)

Yeah, so maybe let’s we can walk through a pretty classic source and experience. Let’s assume that you kind of already have a pretty good idea about what you’re looking for. So you’re gonna go into actually we’re gonna talk about let’s say maybe this is a category, this is my specs, the color, the material, etc. give me recommendations and then you can it will give you some top recommendations you can select and then actually were the agent will develop a pretty professional inquiry for you to make sure it’s speaking. The industry language to set you up for success as someone who’s an experienced series buyer. And then you can say, select these five, what’s like top five, and send this inquiry directly to them. So then the back end, it’s connected through the Alibaba.com. So the agents are sending those information. That’s the first thing. But what else that’s gonna turn on is what we call the AI Auto Chat, meaning for each chat conversation, the agent is actively engaging in conversation during that time. And then what we have seen As the most common workflow, which actually aligns very well even in the pre-AI era, is that people start broad, they shortlist, and when it comes to the final one or two, they actually go in for the full-on investigation, right? So that’s what we’re seeing for Accio Work for our AI Auto Chat as well, is that the agents does the best, brings the most value in that early short listing phase. So let’s say for example, I have a really highly customized product. It’s really hard for me to tell or some really unique needs. It’s not enough for me just to go on a website to evaluate that. And I have a list of five questions for every single supplier. In the past, I have to ask each of these five questions, maybe two five suppliers max, right? But then not all of them are gonna answer the question in the right order, or maybe some are missing something. So you are going you’re the you’re the Excel sheet, right? You go into this chat and say, okay, question number one, number Number three, number four is done, but not number two. The other one is only as another whatever, right? So the agent, what it’s gonna do is say, okay, you gave me a list of five questions. I will make sure every single supplier responds to each one of them. If they’re missing one, I’m gonna chase them and then I’m gonna save those answers into a table so you can make apples-to-apples comparison. And usually halfway, this supplier says they cannot accept this, that supplier says they cannot do that, or they’re out of order for something. You end up with one or two, and then Typically now I can jump in to say, okay, now I feel good about it. auto-chat. You can take a pause, let me take over the communication just to make sure the final collaborations are on are I feel good about that. and then I can place an order, etc. And in that process, I do want to highlight that obviously AI can automate a lot of things for you, but in many cases, just like in other industries, it’s a lot about relationship, right? Unless You’re paying for what we call like ready-to-ship, like standardized product. Let’s say I’m just buying some balloons for a party or buying some bracelets for an event. Otherwise, for highly customized product, you’re building a relationship. So at the end of the day, it is recommended for you to have some interaction with the suppliers because you might be working with them on your next iteration and new product as well.

Grace Shao (37:09)

Very interesting. So it’s really just helping improve the lead quality and then shortening the negotiation time in many sense. And then but the ultimate actually decision making is still like in the hands of the human. that makes a lot of sense. So I want to turn the conversation around. We talked a lot about how it’s helping businesses, right? Helping the vendor, the seller. but the other end of it is the suppliers. And I believe that at a lot of suppliers are actually on at SEO and also turning on auto chat and whatnot. So what basically support do you provide suppliers and help them in selling their products to the vendor in the between or like the brand owner.

Ziwei Chen (37:41)

Yeah, absolutely. so we do have a version or specific plugins that are meant for the factories and the suppliers who are who can also choose to be on Accio Work for all of their for their side of the sales as well. and I think even pre-Axial World, a lot of the more AI tech savvy factories are already developing their own chatbot for services as well. So I don’t think that’s new to some extent. But I what I think a few of the really key areas that we are seeing success, the first One is actually a little bit more about background research on potential buyers because a lot of them maybe they’re overseas, they don’t have all the all the awareness or the ability to search across the world about learning about who is this buyer, are they serious, what’s the scale, right? All of these things. So we’re seeing a lot of our factories or the sellers, our sellers on the platform using Accio Work to To understand their potential buyers. Because a lot of times, again, maybe in the maybe there are buyers who are not as experienced but are very serious. That wouldn’t come across in their messaging, especially maybe English and other first language either, right? We have users in Europe, in in Latin America as well, so and also in the US. So I think by giving more data to the suppliers to get a better picture about the potential buyers, it also helps them. capture opportunities or avoid losing or missing out on opportunity. I think that’s a really critical part for sure. And I think the other part is about that general selling optimization as well. It can be most of the times it will be on the Alibaba.com platform. How do you stand out as a seller by learning about the data, learning about the user behavior as well? So I think these are a few areas that we are seeing a lot of usage from the supplier side.

Grace Shao (39:27)

I see, I see. It makes sense.

Ziwei Chen (39:28)

Excuse me.

Grace Shao (39:29)

Something we talked about offline before recording this is, you know, that a lot of the users, whether they’re the s your sellers or, you know, the actual brand owners, is that AI is still relatively new, right? They’re not the people in Silicon Valley. they’re not working for big tech. And that’s quite different from a lot of the other genetic tools being sold or marketed to these more so called sophisticated AI users. Now, how are you helping them, I guess, whether it’s upskill or understand or not be so intimidated by AI?

Ziwei Chen (39:57)

Yeah, great question. I think a few thoughts here. maybe the different a few different perspectives when it comes to the product development side, on the go-to-market side, on the educational side, et cetera. I think to start from the product side, I think what we have been really emphasizing or de-emphasizing is the is a is a focus. It’s too much focus on the features themselves. So what we have learned is that when we’re packaging them, we’re not like It’s almost like sometimes our users they don’t need a toolbox, they just need like an almost built up tool that can run itself. So what our product team has been really focusing on is not just to build the building blocks, but build the framework of those building blocks. So we’re not making our users to learn to become a Lego expertise like expert right away. so I think from a product end, it’s more about how can we take off the burden of the configuration as as much as possible. That has always been an emphasis, but even more importantly, as we’re getting more newer users in the space. I think that’s one thing. The other thing when it comes to just overall marketing side, what we are also experimenting, exploring now is a lot more when it comes to live events, either it’s in person or online, where we’re taking things slow. And then in this process, what we are trying to emphasize is more the workflow, the use cases as opposed to the feature. Like let me show you how this thing works from what’s the input and what’s the output. And this is all you need to do is to copy and paste and whatever. And then I can explain to you what happens on the back end. Because ultimately what we call the job to be done, right? They’re not adopting a nail, right? They’re adopting a hole like on the wall, things like that. I think that kind of stays consistent. I think the very last thing in this process From an educational perspective, that it’s also learning from my perspective, is that a lot of times the users are not only learning about AI, but they’re learning about just how to launch and run a business. That’s almost even more important than a tool. The tool is an enabler to help you achieve the goals in business as well. So what we are trying to do is to resurface the business know-how. It can be sourcing, it can be about product design, it can be about how do you do SEO or like how do you do like B2B, like pipeline or lead gen? And then let me bake in those automation in the back end. But what you’re taking away is how to do this thing, even in the pre-AI era, but now just making it easier to do. So I think that has been more of an emphasis from a go-to market or like a community building perspective as well, to make sure we’re not overwhelming our audiences. because maybe they’re already overwhelmed by all the AI tools out there in the market as well. So how can we shorten that and let them get to the aha moment faster and easier?

Grace Shao (42:42)

So how do you plan to monetize that SEO then? Are you guys charging subscription? Are you guys gonna start plugging in advertisement?

Ziwei Chen (42:49)

Yeah, so Accio Work is on currently on a subscription plan model, both for personal subscription plan and also for business plan as well. and then all of these typically by a monthly plan or an annual plan. It’s primarily based on token usage. So depending on how much how much work. How many types of things was the frequency of the task that you anticipate on the platform and then you’re upgrading yourself based on the amount of work that token consumes. So typically that depends again on the volume, on the complexity, and also on different models you choose to activate for each of these tasks. And that kind of r it aligns with our vision since the beginning, at least starting from Accio. the sourcing engine to now this the agented platform as well. So it’s mostly focused on usage. we do not currently have a plan again because of that kind of fairness or the quality of results, we’re not dealing with like advertisement from suppliers. most other things is more about how do we empower our our like sellers, like or buyers on our platform, the sellers to the consumers to get their business running using the agentic capability.

Grace Shao (43:54)

Now throwing it forward, where do you see agentic commerce going? Because it’s really interesting. I just interviewed agentic payment solution company last week as well. And then now obviously talking to you guys about agentic supplying, supply network support. where does agentic commerce kind of take us? Like in the future, are we just gonna be like telling the agents to do this whole transaction, this whole activity loop? Or Do you think that human is still needed for a lot of the verification and and and quality control in between?

Ziwei Chen (44:22)

Yeah, I think a few thoughts here. I do think that human in the loop is critical at different stages of a development. So for example, there are when we talk about agentic or agentic automation, right? We’re we’re automating an existing workflow. Yes, there are a lot of best practices, but it really varies, right? So even having your you’re co-developing an automation workflow with the AI tools in the beginning, and that will vary all the time. The more you The more you invest in that co-creation with the agents in the beginning, the better the automation or the workflow will work well for you. And then along the way, what we’re also seeing from our uses is that they’re learning while doing. You’re building a plane while you’re flying it. So there’s always gonna be learnings along the way. Just like in coding, there are ways for you to build the agents to do that automation by themselves. But I think the more complex the considerations are, the better. Better impact a human can bring to that loop as well. So that’s in the middle part, right? And also in the end, I think there’s still we’re still building that trust along the way, like between the human and the agent or the agentic loop as well. So I do think that having the option to or for an agency, for the human to have that agency, is always critical. That I think it’s it needs to stay. but then on the other hand, what I also want to add is that I think the word of agentic commerce. Can vary quite a bit between B2B and B2C. for example, in the B2C world, there’s always that shopping experience. It’s not gonna get taken away, right? Just sh going to it’s browsing that emotional experience is not gonna be replaced by AI. While the B2B world is a little bit more calculated, is more, right? But still it has that you have that relationship part. So I think in both end, I think there’s still human touch. In addition to human decision, needs to go in. But where I’m the most excited about is that because our target audience or our target user sits literally in between. They’re in this loop for B2B agentic commerce, and also they’re in this loop of B2C agentic commerce. So what I’m excited to see is how these two worlds are merging, or our our core audiences sit in this overlap in between. And then I’m I’m excited to see more of that. synergy of what works in the B2C authentic commerce world can get better integrated with the B2B world as well. Because again, like our sellers or our buyers are sitting between the factories, right? And them as a brand owner and then the consumers as well. So I think this is where I think the next iteration of innovation or maybe redefined like r the new definition of workflows of tools that might happen as well.

Grace Shao (47:04)

That’s super fascinating. Cause I think when I’ve been speaking.

Ziwei Chen (47:05)

Yeah, but.

Grace Shao (47:06)

To people who are working in the agentic commerce space, it’s often so very compartmentized, like what you said, like you there’s a B2C world but there’s B2B world, and these two worlds don’t really, you know, co like collide at all because whoever’s talking to a factory is not really telling what’s happening to the consumer and there’s no really feedback. Factories don’t even know where the product’s going and how it’s being branded. But now there’s that kind of ecosystem, I g like communication or the world colliding between on Accio. It’s very interesting. what do you think the world’s still getting wrong about agentic commerce? Because I think there’s still some people who are very reluctant or resistant towards agentic commerce or the idea of it. What do you think is people are having misunderstanding about it?

Ziwei Chen (47:47)

I think one thing that we briefly already touched upon is whether a gender commerce is taking away the agency of human. so I think that’s the part that causes the most concern or hesitance is like is the agent gonna replace me? But I think all a lot of these judgment calls, even that branding, right? that personal story about you being as an operator, you having that guidance on the branding on the story and all of that, it’s not gonna go away. But also it’s not gonna go away, but it’s also critical for you to inform where the agent should go. I think that’s one thing. But the other thing that I feel like maybe where I think it’s also like A of times when just as you said, when people think about commerce, they’re th thinking it still tend to go more siloed or go into just on specific steps. So I think it’s still that orchestration layer when things start to get connected and st start to flow together. So it’s not just about how well each of a step is done well, but how well all of these steps are connected. And then that’s also where that human in the loop or your agency is bringing that flow together. So I think that’s an overall area where I think it’s it’s People might be evaluating the wrong thing as opposed to their making the wrong judgment call about a one specific thing.

Grace Shao (48:57)

Thank you. And then my last question for you is a question I ask every single guest that comes on, as the podcast name is called Differing Understanding. what is one differentiated view you hold or something you think that’s very non-consensus?

Ziwei Chen (49:08)

Yeah, so I think my the first thing that really stood out to me is that not every problem for not not every problem needs AI to be solved, or AI is not a solution for everything. and I think that has implications both on the development side and also on the user side. So on development side, what we mean is that there are solutions or there are things that we can build that is more efficient or more accurate even without AI. So we should not shy away from that. And that should that will impact how people build products. But on the other hand, even for the users, that also means that skills in AI is important, but that’s not enough, or that’s not the only thing that I will focus on in this era AI era phase. Instead, I will still spend time in building your domain knowledge as well, because without that. You’re not gonna be able to learn how to use AI the best because maybe sometimes AI cannot solve all the problems as well. So I think be having a balanced view about where AI sits in the product or in your tool stack is something that will allow you to get the best out of all the AI tools available and drive results for yourself.

Grace Shao (50:21)

I love that it’s like keeping the human side of things in check. But I think it’s only non-consensus of where you sit because sit in the Bay Area. Only people in the Bay Area believe AI is taking over the world right now.

Ziwei Chen (50:31)

Okay.

Grace Shao (50:32)

But thank you so much for your time, Switzue. really appreciated your insights, and you’re very you know, deep understanding of the agentic commerce world.

Ziwei Chen (50:39)

Yeah, thank you. I had fun. Appreciate it.

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From Sourcing Engine to Agentic Commerce with Alibaba's Accio Agent

AI Proem Podcast

From Sourcing Engine to Agentic Commerce with Alibaba's Accio Agent