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Alibaba, TikTok woo US with AI and live-streaming e-commerce at CES trade show, setting the tone for 2024

  • In its international launch at CES, Alibaba.com’s new AI chatbot showed how it can help buyers with sourcing for merchandise
  • TikTok Shop set up a booth for influencers to sell their wares via live streaming from CES, showing where the platform figures its strengths lie

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At the recent CES trade show in Las Vegas, Alibaba.com and TikTok Shop focused on their respective strengths in artificial intelligence and live-streaming e-commerce. Photos: Shutterstock
Chinese internet giants Alibaba Group Holding and TikTok each put their technological prowess on display last week at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, where their respective artificial intelligence (AI) and live-streaming e-commerce products set the tone for how they plan to embed themselves further into daily life in overseas markets.
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Alibaba.com, the international business-to-business wholesale marketplace of South China Morning Post owner Alibaba, launched its Smart Assistant feature at the world’s largest consumer electronics show, with computers set up around the centre of its booth to show how the embedded chatbot can help buyers navigate the sourcing website.
Smart Assistant is powered by multiple large language models (LLMs) – the technology used to train ChatGPT and similar services – including home-grown Tongyi Qianwen, depending on use case, an Alibaba.com representative said.

“With advances in AI, we are ushering in the next generation of sourcing and empowering small businesses to succeed with our Smart Assistant at their side,” Chris Lu, general manager at Alibaba.com North America, said in a statement last week.

The Alibaba.com booth features the e-commerce platform’s artificial intelligence-powered Smart Assistant, designed to help users navigate the sourcing website, at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on January 12, 2024. Photo: Matt Haldane
The Alibaba.com booth features the e-commerce platform’s artificial intelligence-powered Smart Assistant, designed to help users navigate the sourcing website, at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on January 12, 2024. Photo: Matt Haldane

Alibaba.com’s debut of Smart Assistant showed how ubiquitous AI innovation was at CES this year. No tech giant’s exhibition was complete without showing off its effort in that space.

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