Original: Ou Yujiao
Source: Big Model Home
It is not difficult to find that based on the combination of big models and e-commerce apps, Taobao is gradually infiltrating its AI "genes" from "e-commerce" to "shopping guide," "popular science," "creative content generation," and other aspects.
Recently, Big Model Home noticed that Taobao is internally testing an AI assistant called "Taobao Wenwen" based on the Tongyiqianwen big model.
It is reported that Taobao Wenwen is an innovative attempt by Taobao to iterate on the e-commerce search and shopping guide methods based on the original search function. Users can input information to Taobao Wenwen and then receive text, images, videos, audio, and other output information generated or returned by Taobao Wenwen based on their input.
Image Source: Taobao App
It is worth noting that Taobao emphasizes that the information output by Taobao Wenwen may contain AI-generated content based on deep synthesis technology and may contain links to third parties. Taobao does not "recommend" the products and related content returned in the output.
Currently, users can search for the keyword "Taobao Wenwen" on the Taobao App to submit an application for internal testing or participate in the experience through an invitation code. However, Taobao has not yet revealed whether the application will be fully launched and the specific time of the launch.
Taobao Wenwen, not just an AI "shopping guide"?
After opening the Taobao App, Big Model Home quickly accessed Taobao Wenwen through the above steps.
According to the page content, Taobao Wenwen has functional labels such as "senior shopping guide," "life assistant," "food expert," "travel planner," and "soulful writer," which can provide consumers with product selection strategies, product recommendations, itinerary suggestions, and more.
Image Source: Taobao App
First, Big Model Home chose to experience the recommendation question under the senior shopping guide section: "What should I prepare for camping?" In about 30 seconds, Taobao Wenwen provided an answer. In addition to the answer, it not only explained the use of the required items but also pushed the "purchase links" of related products, allowing users to directly enter the Taobao store with a click. It can be said that Taobao Wenwen's performance in terms of the completeness of the answer, application scenarios, relevance of recommendations, and the "necessity" of the products is commendable.
However, in terms of the quantity of recommended results, the current Taobao Wenwen still lacks in this aspect, only recommending three of the "various items" mentioned in the answer, with only one recommendation for each category, and the recommendations are relatively random (the recommended store is not a top-tier store, etc.). This not only easily leads to the loss of "user ordering interest" but also to a certain extent affects the "comprehensiveness" and "authority" of Taobao Wenwen.
Image Source: Taobao App
After the senior shopping guide, Big Model Home tested the "food expert" section and chose a controversial common sense question—whether to put the eggs or tomatoes first when cooking tomato and egg stir-fry, in order to test Taobao Wenwen's "concreteness" and "common sense" abilities.
However, this time, Taobao Wenwen was slightly lacking in considering the overall situation. Although it came up with the "popular" answer of frying the eggs first and then the tomatoes, it did not consider the issue of "regional differences." It can be seen that under the premise of regional and cultural habits, Taobao Wenwen cannot effectively avoid the "traps" in the question.
It is worth noting that in addition to answering user questions, Taobao Wenwen also extends a series of related new questions based on the questions asked by users. From this perspective, the current Taobao Wenwen is transitioning from a limited and simple AI question-and-answer service to a more comprehensive and intelligent new service system.
Image Source: Taobao App
In addition to the common Q&A, Big Model Home also launched an "attack" on the "travel planner" module. Although Taobao Wenwen quickly answered the question "What should I prepare when taking a three-year-old girl to Tianjin?" and provided relatively complete "travel tips" and "food recommendations," compared to the current "travel platforms," it is lacking in the completeness of the tips (such as transportation methods), language expression, and even the public information of recommended attractions (such as ticket prices). At the same time, when Big Model Home had doubts and asked follow-up questions about the initial answer, Taobao Wenwen could not provide a timely "answer," and even encountered situations of "answering irrelevantly."
Image Source: Taobao App
Image Source: Taobao App
Admittedly, from the current internal testing results, Taobao Wenwen still has many areas that need improvement. However, on the other hand, the appearance of Taobao Wenwen has indeed to some extent iterated on the original search method. It not only better understands consumers' natural language but also provides users with more accurate recommendations for "needed products" from consumers' complex "needs" and "usage scenarios." Improving the accuracy of purchasing decisions and creating a more convenient and enjoyable shopping experience for users.
At the same time, as consumer demands gradually become "diversified" and "personalized," the "fragmentation" and "understanding bias" of traditional keyword input search methods will become more prominent. In this context, Taobao Wenwen's use of AI technology to provide intelligent shopping consultation services for users is also a "seizing the opportunity" under the background of AI.
Ramping up AI, Taobao sparks a new e-commerce revolution
In a sense, Taobao Wenwen not only represents the beginning of AI on the Taobao App but also represents the ever-expanding "ambition" of Taobao in the era of artificial intelligence.
This "ambition" was emphasized by Dai Shan, CEO of Taobao Group, at the 618 Merchant Conference this year: "We plan to achieve comprehensive intelligence of merchant operation tools in the next 5 years to create new user products and services in the AI era."
In terms of implementation, in August of this year, Taobao launched AI Mix and AI Fitting Room. The former can help merchants produce dressing content at low cost, help users match clothing across stores and categories, and improve the shopping experience; while the latter provides users with the ability to try on clothes of different body shapes.
Earlier, in July of this year, Taobao also launched the AI Creation Assistant. According to the official introduction, users only need to take or upload a portrait, choose the desired style, and they can create an AI self-portrait, which can be used as a Taobao account avatar.
Image Source: Taobao App
Now, with the launch of Taobao Wenwen, not only has it filled the gaps in the planning and information modules of the original e-commerce platform, but it has also completed the transition of Taobao to provide a comprehensive e-commerce platform with "planning" + "information" + "products." Therefore, for the current Taobao Wenwen, backed by a large amount of internal testing feedback and demand data, how to stand out from many platforms with the characteristic of "product seeding" while rapidly iterating user search methods is also a direction worth exploring.
Big Model Home's analysis found that as an emerging technological means, although AI assistants have gradually played an important role on major e-commerce platforms, only Taobao has launched AI assistant tools, while a variety of "competitors" such as JD, Douyin, and Kuaishou are still in the process of developing independent big model products.
Looking further ahead, as more and more AI genes are injected into the Taobao App, how to fully realize the expanding commercial imagination space under the deep integration of Taobao and AIGC will be the key to its successful breakthrough, and even the key to overturning the entire AI e-commerce track.
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