Chinese e-commerce vendor Alibaba International introduced on Thursday the next evolution of Accio, its B2B search engine.
Accio Agent is a global trade agent built to assist with the challenges that SMBs -- limited by time, resources and staffing -- face. It automates 70% of manual workflows and compresses processes such as product ideation, prototyping, compliance checks and supplier sourcing, according to Alibaba.
For Accio Agent to work, users have to input only a product concept, and the system generates a development plan, market insights, regulatory guidelines and design specifications.
Alibaba trained the agent on 1 billion product listings and 50 million supplier profiles.
Domain-specific agents
Accio Agent is domain-specific, an example of a growing trend within the AI market for vendors.
"AI agents and [large language models] are likely to gain traction not only as general-purpose assistants, but also in niche, high-friction domains where domain-specific reasoning and proprietary data offer measurable assistance," said Kashyap Kompella, RPA2AI Research CEO.
It combines domain-specific search with structured reasoning and limited execution, offering a vertical alternative to general-purpose research tools.
Kashyap KompellaCEO, RPA2AI Research
On the whole, Accio competes with function-specific search and is comparable to OpenAI's ChatGPT and Gemini Deep Search, Kompella said, adding that it focuses on B2B trade.
"It combines domain-specific search with structured reasoning and limited execution, offering a vertical alternative to general-purpose research tools," he said.
C3 AI also unveiled a domain-specific agent this week. On Wednesday, the AI vendor released Agentic AI Websites. Enterprises can embed the tool into their website so visitors can interact with it by asking questions and using natural language.
The focus on domain-specific agents shows the pace of innovation in finding compelling use cases to apply the latest technology, according to Ed Anderson, an analyst at Gartner.
Accio Agent
He said Alibaba's Accio Agent addresses challenges that entrepreneurs face. They must undergo an extensive amount of work to vet or build a business plan and start taking action to follow through on the plan.
"It's a very compelling use case for an AI agent," Anderson said, adding that the challenge with building business plans is figuring out how to narrow down an overwhelming amount of information and determine what to pursue.
"This AI agent, purportedly given its vast knowledge base and training, will simplify the processes of sorting through that data and organizing it in a way an organization can pursue," Anderson said. "The big question here is, given the type of solution, will this particular class of customer or potential customer embrace this approach?"
Kompella said the strengths of Accio Agent include its training on global supplier and product data and its integration with Alibaba's transaction infrastructure.
However, he added, weaknesses include lock-in to a tight ecosystem and limited utility outside of Alibaba's trade environment.
Since Accio Agent focuses on global trade, experts expect the agent to meet regulatory requirements and process controlled technical data, such as export laws or compliance violations, as well as operate in regulated sectors such as defense and healthcare, he said.
"Full automation triggers additional regulatory burdens around explainability and AI governance, liability, attribution, procurement law, and cross-border data handling, privacy and export control frameworks," Kompella said.
Esther Shittu is an Informa TechTarget news writer and podcast host covering artificial intelligence software and systems.
