Alibaba’s cloud unit unveils new suite of industry-specific digital tools built on its AI model, widening its reach in the enterprise market

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, has unveiled a suite of new industry-specific artificial intelligence (AI) tools, built on its large language model (LLM) Tongyi Qianwen, to make it easier for companies across various sectors to develop their own AI-enabled applications.

These AI tools, which Alibaba Cloud calls proprietary models, were introduced at the company’s annual Apsara Conference in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, where updated LLM Tongyi Qianwen 2.0 was featured. The three-day event concluded on Thursday.

At least 10 industry-specific AI tools built on Tongyi Qianwen 2.0 were presented at the conference. Alibaba Cloud expected these tools to help enterprises unlock the transformative potential of generative AI – the technology behind ChatGPT and similar services – across various sectors, including customer support, legal counselling, healthcare, finance, documentation management, audio and video management, code development and character creation.

“We hope that our proprietary models can deliver real value to our customers to improve operational efficiency and to stay competitive,” Alibaba Cloud chief technology officer Zhou Jingren said at the conference.

Founded in 2009, Alibaba’s cloud computing services unit enables companies to distribute over the internet a range of software and other digital resources as an on-demand service, just like electricity from a power grid. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The new suite of AI tools underscores Alibaba’s sharpened focus on AI and enterprise users, which new group chief executive Eddie Wu Yongming outlined in an internal letter sent to employees in September.