The Alibaba Group has launched a new AI-powered search engine targeted at helping the myriad small businesses in Europe and the Americas source wholesale. Branded Accio, the tool is to make buying find products easier for its users using generative AI technology, just like in interactive platforms such as ChatGPT.

A web-based tool, available in English, German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish, lets businesses search for products by giving text or image prompts. In addition, it offers insights into popularity of the product, demand by the consumer, and projected profitability for the business.

Early tests have shown promising results, with businesses experiencing a 40% increase in purchase intent when using Accio compared to traditional search engines, according to Kuo Zhang, president of Alibaba.com and vice president of Alibaba International.

Accio taps into a vast dataset, drawing on information from over 50 million businesses on Alibaba’s international platform and 1 billion product listings across more than 100 global markets. It is powered by Alibaba’s own Tongyi Qianwen large language model (LLM), although the company has not confirmed whether it integrates third-party AI technologies.

The AI tool offers several features designed to simplify sourcing. For example, it helped a sports entrepreneur to find wholesale options for building a line of pickleball products. Within search results, businesses can directly contact suppliers to diminish the procurement process.

Alibaba’s cross-border business is growing heavily, and businesses both in Europe and North America make up the largest group of buyers. Accio is but just another recent release by Alibaba of an AI translation tool targeted towards helping merchants connect with customers across language barriers, superior to Google, DeepL, and ChatGPT, Alibaba claims.

The launch of Accio is the latest step in Alibaba’s much bigger plan to innovate its international platform. The company now aims to explore AI applications to improve the user experience for this marketplace and help boost growth in sales.