Alibaba unveiled Accio: the world’s first B2B search engine

Alibaba unveiled its new tool: Accio, the world's first B2B vendor search engine. Accio will index B2B vendors worldwide and enhance Alibaba's global vendor ecosystem.

Accio offers SMBs the ability to easily access the expertise, information, manufacturers, and products they need to make informed sourcing decisions for their business through three core components:

Accio Search - An AI-powered B2B search engine built to enable natural language searches, providing an intuitive platform for businesses to connect with global suppliers.

Accio Page - An AI-powered feature that provides a dynamic Wikipedia-style interface for product information, as well as objective product details and comparisons to similar items.

Accio Agent - An end-to-end e-commerce platform that acts as your sourcing agent, supporting inquiries, payments and after-sales services through Alibaba's robust infrastructure.

How does Accio works? 

According to CNBC, Kuo Zhang, president of Alibaba Group, said Accio uses data from 50 million businesses on Alibaba International’s platform and publicly available industry information. The tool incorporates 1 billion product listings and documents covering industries across more than 100 markets from Alibaba.com, the company’s business-to-business platform that sells to companies outside China.

The company said that businesses based in Europe and North America are the largest group of buyers. In October, Alibaba’s international arm announced an updated version of an AI translation tool to help merchants reach customers in other countries. The company claimed the tech’s translation capabilities beat those of Google, DeepL, and ChatGPT.

Although Alibaba's international business has grown rapidly in recent years, its main revenue driver remains its domestic e-commerce platforms, Taobao and Tmall. In August 2023, management told investors that “the Taobao app has the greatest potential to become a one-stop smart portal for life and consumption enabled by AI.”

During the weeks-long Singles Day shopping festival that wrapped up Monday, more than half of over 500 merchants selling on Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com used a generative AI-enabled tool, according to a survey by Bain & Company.

Those features include AI for customer service and content generation. The survey found that 56% of respondents said AI tools had a “high positive impact” on improving productivity.