Alibaba International announced the official launch of its next-generation AI solution, Marco, designed to redefine global e-commerce operations and empower small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in cross-border trade.
Developed in 2024 by Alibaba International’s AI Business team, Marco provides end-to-end support for merchants across the company’s global ecosystem. The platform manages more than 60 critical tasks spanning marketing, marketplace compliance, and customer service. Operating in over 40 languages, Marco delivers advanced listing translations, AI-driven content generation, and creative image production—helping businesses streamline operations at lower costs compared to major competitors without compromising performance.
Rapid Growth and Market Adoption
Alibaba International has witnessed unprecedented adoption of its AI offerings, with Marco at the forefront. By July 2025, daily API calls from Chinese merchants surpassed 1 billion, a thousand-fold surge from just 1 million in 2023. Today, all Alibaba International e-commerce marketplaces are powered by Marco, extending these same AI-driven capabilities to global merchants engaged in cross-border trade.
Core features driving adoption include:
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Creative Image Generation – Producing diverse visual variations from a single image.
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AI-Generated Listings – Automatically creating product listings from product photos.
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Marketing Content Creation – Generating promotional text tailored for e-commerce campaigns.
Following a major upgrade in late 2024, Marco’s translation engine boosted satisfaction scores by 30% in key European markets. Currently, the platform generates nearly 40% of all SEO-optimized product descriptions across Alibaba International’s platforms, with projections to exceed 50% soon.
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Expanding Ecosystem and New AI Agents
Alibaba International has also extended Marco’s technology to external e-commerce platforms in China, beyond its own ecosystem. As a result, API usage from these partners has increased 23-fold.
To address complex operational challenges in cross-border trade, the company has introduced three specialized AI Agents:
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Intelligent Refund Agent – Suggests optimal refund strategies by analyzing consumer and merchant data, cutting costs by 15%.
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HS Code Agent – Automates customs classification with a 23% improvement in accuracy.
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Merchant Recruitment Agent – Identifies and pre-qualifies potential sellers, nearly doubling email lead conversion rates.
“The past year marks a significant shift in how we deploy AI to empower cross-border e-commerce, reflecting broader industry needs and trends,” said Kaifu Zhang, Vice President of Alibaba International and Head of its AI Business team. “Our approach combines deep, scenario-specific data with continuous learning loops, leading to increasingly powerful problem-solving capabilities. We’re evolving beyond standalone generative models toward dedicated AI agents that can tackle a wider range of complex business challenges efficiently for merchants engaged in cross-border trade worldwide.”
Several of these AI-powered tools are now also accessible to partners via Aidge, Alibaba International’s open AI platform.
