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Global B2B e-commerce leader enhances its platform offerings with agentic AI features to streamline online sourcing
As more and more entrepreneurs seek ways to chase their dreams, the number of partners they can work with is also growing. In fact, global business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce platform Alibaba.com has seen a 50% increase worldwide in year-over-year active supplier growth.
Amid this growth, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) around the world are confident in the future of e-commerce—and with good reason. Today, the global B2B e-commerce market is worth approximately $30 trillion, and that number will only rise amid rapid innovation. For most SMEs, the question for their business isn’t whether it will succeed in this massive market, it’s how it will succeed. The answer might just be the cutting edge technology that is poised to drive further market growth: agentic AI.
Winning with agentic AI
Traditionally, global sourcing is a very complex and time-consuming process reliant on finding the correct keyword search terms to match your products needs to the right supplier. For SMEs already operating on small margins and tight timelines, sourcing remaina significant hurdle to overcome to bring their products to market. However, as agentic AI models enter the fold in sourcing, the days of basic key-word searches and lengthy procurement processes are over.
With just a single search on an agentic AI model, SMEs around the world can find cutting-edge, actionable insights that help them make informed decisions about the right supplier to bring their products to market. With some AI models, business decision-makers can even initiate the RFQ process.
AI models won’t just give users the same results time and time again, either. As the number of suppliers continues to grow globally, it might seem inevitable that the right niche sourcing partner for an SME could get buried by more established suppliers. With agentic AI tools, however, business decision-makers can break through to the “hidden product shelf.” Agentic AI tools are designed to interpret complex documents and technical materials that can help identify specialized, custom, or regionally-focused suppliers based on operational capability rather than simple keyword optimization. Not only does this help SMEs quickly and effectively find the right supplier for their needs, it also creates a more resilient supply chain by helping SMEs discover alternative suppliers and democratizes global sourcing to smaller suppliers that may have gone unnoticed in traditional searches.
Finding the right agentic AI tool
Similar to identifying the right supplier, SMEs navigating today’s global sourcing environment also have a wide selection of agentic AI tools to choose from to help streamline their operations. One example is Alibaba.com’s ‘AI Mode,’ powered by Alibaba International’s enhanced B2B search engine, Accio.
AI Mode, which Alibaba.com announced at its inaugural CoCreate Europe event in November and officially rolled out this month, goes beyond traditional Large Language Models (LLMs) used for deep search by introducing agentic capabilities and acting as a fully automated agent.
By starting with just a simple search, SMEs can leverage AI resources like AI Mode to get actionable insights through capabilities such as:
- Interpreting Complex Queries: Agentic AI tools can analyze unstructured inputs like technical specifications, engineering blueprints, product sketches, and certification documents by processing natural language requests.
- Automating Comparison and Vetting: The latest AI models can automatically compare suppliers across multiple, complex criteria, including pricing, logistics capabilities, production capacity, factory track records, and regulatory certifications in just seconds, cutting down on previously lengthy analytical processes.
- Facilitating the Entire Journey: AI Mode in particular enables a fully automated trade experience, from initial discovery to post-sale support, by connecting with other Alibaba.com platforms and services such as secure payment and Trade Assurance.
For SMEs around the world, the ability to turn to a tool like AI Mode drastically simplifies the procurement process, reducing both timelines and expenses. Ultimately, agentic AI tools can help lower barriers to entry for businesses of all sizes and transform the buyer’s role from a search engine operator into a strategic director guiding an AI agent that handles execution.
Future Growth Relies on Continued Innovation
The future of global e-commerce is a massive world of possibilities, and agentic AI will ensure that it is also more efficient, resilient, and inclusive. The shift to agentic AI is unlocking those new possibilities for SMEs at the same time that the global e-commerce industry is experiencing rapid growth in the number of suppliers. As this growth continues, AI will only become more of a foundational layer for B2B sourcing.
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