“AMAZING! I thought she was a real person!” That’s the response from a visitor who was told that the livestreamer selling beauty products on a large screen was a digital person at the booth of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com at the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS).

Yanxi has completed over 400,000 hours of livestreaming for more than 5,000 brands, attracting at least 100 million views, according to JD.com.

With the help of Yanxi, who works 24/7, merchants can set up a livestreaming service within two hours and at 10% the cost of hiring a human livestreamer.

JD.com has also launched an AI-generated content (AIGC) platform to help merchants generate marketing contents, including videos, which improves efficiency greatly.

The CIFTIS, held in Beijing between Sept. 12 and 16, offered a glimpse into AI’s potential to empower e-commerce.

Cross-border e-commerce giant Alibaba.com also showcased at the fair their AI application, which facilitates every step of its online business, including procurements, product launches, and logistics. AI tools help sellers tailor their web pages to the needs of various clients in different countries, according to Jiang Lin, an official with Alibaba. The platform helps merchants gain a better understanding of various markets through an AI analysis of collected data, Jiang said.

Alibaba launched an AI business assistant last year, which is now used by over 30,000 small and medium-sized companies. It can generate a product profile complete with a headline, keywords, price and pictures based on its image or several keywords, cutting new product launching time from 60 minutes to 120 seconds.

China’s cross-border e-commerce trade grew by 10.5% to reach 1.22 trillion yuan (US$172 billion) in the first half of 2024, according to a report released at CIFTIS.

The five-day CIFTIS attracted 2,000 companies to attend offline and more than 6,000 to attend online. It showcased multiple cutting-edge technologies, including the orthopedic surgery robot equipped with AI deep learning technology and the world’s smallest cardiac pacemaker, in sectors such as AI, cloud computing, metaverse and 6G telecommunications. The fair also held over 180 forums and other activities on its sidelines.

Co-organized by Beijing’s government and the Ministry of Commerce, the first Beijing Fair, the predecessor of CIFTIS, was held in 2012. The rebranded CIFTIS began to be held in Beijing’s Shougang Park and China National Convention Center since 2021.(Xinhua)