#244: How Alibaba.com Is Building the Future of Agent-to-Agent Commerce

Kuo Zhang (0:00)

And there are going to be endless back and forth conversations, different time zones, different cultures and languages. In there, that AI can help a lot. So we believe that the B2B will go to A2A, so agent to agent, that will be the future.

Mike Kaput (0:17)

Welcome to AI Transformations, a special series from The Artificial Intelligence Show. I'm Mike Kaput, Chief Content Officer at SmarterX and Marketing AI Institute, and I'll be your host. Every business's AI journey looks different. In each of these episodes, I sit down with leaders who have lived the real AI transformation, including the actual stories, the pain points that push them to act, the moment things started to click, and the results they can point to today. So join us as we accelerate AI literacy for all, as part of our AI Transformations series.

Welcome everyone to episode 244 of The Artificial Intelligence Show. I am Mike Kaput, co-host of The Artificial Intelligence Show and Chief Content Officer here at SmarterX. Now, today we are continuing a special series that we've been running called AI Transformations. This is where we spotlight how real companies are driving real change using AI. Now, we actually launched AI Transformations with this initial six-episode run, where we had some select stories we knew we wanted to tell. But there are far more than six transformation stories worth telling. So we are continuing the series and bringing you more of these conversations directly as part of The Artificial Intelligence Show. Now, the premise here remains the same. AI Transformation can feel abstract. Plenty of companies talk about it. Far fewer show what it actually looks like inside real organizations with real teams, real constraints, and real business outcomes. So in these episodes, we are talking directly to the leaders doing the work. We're going to explore their particular AI transformations, what AI work looks like inside the company, what got difficult along the way when it comes to AI adoption and innovation, and what kind of results AI is starting to unlock. So today, the leader we are talking to is Kuo Zhang, who is president of alibaba.com. Kuo is here to talk about how alibaba.com is using AI and agents to rethink how entrepreneurs and small businesses participate in global commerce. So before we get into today's conversation with Kuo, this episode is brought to you by Maicon, our Marketing AI Conference for Marketing and Business Leaders happening October 13th to the 15th, right here in our home base of Cleveland, Ohio. We are expecting thousands of AI forward leaders here. We are less than two weeks away from Maicon if you are listening to this when it drops. So if you have been thinking about joining us, this is the time to make it happen. We are gonna bring together so many people for three days of keynotes, sessions, workshops and conversations about how organizations are adopting, operationalizing and scaling AI. So you'll hear real world case studies, practical frameworks and direct lessons from the people doing the work inside companies today. If you are a podcast listener, use the code POD100 at checkout for your Maicon ticket to save $100 on your pass. Now, what's really cool is that using this code will also reserve your place at our private lunch for podcast listeners, Mr. Paul Roetzer, my other co-host, our CEO and founder, and I will spend an hour answering your questions about AI, your company, your career, whatever you're trying to navigate in the wide wonderful world of AI. So seats are limited. The offer closes when the room is full. So use that code as soon as possible. Go to maicon.ai, M-A-I-C-O-NA-I to register. We hope to see you October 13th to the 15th here in Cleveland. So today I am joined by Kuo Zhang, president of alibaba.com. Now when most people hear the name Alibaba, they probably think about the much larger Alibaba Group. alibaba.com is a specific part of that organization and it is where the entire company began. alibaba.com launched in 1999 as Alibaba Group's first business.

Today it is a global business to business commerce platform that helps entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses find suppliers, source products, conduct transactions and manage different parts of international trade. For the fiscal year 2026, alibaba.com reported that more than 47 million buyers from over 190 countries had used the platform to source business opportunities or complete transactions. It also had more than 240,000 paying members. Kuo has served as president of alibaba.com since 2017

He began his career as a computer scientist at IBM and Microsoft before joining Alibaba in 2011, where he worked on merchant platforms and tools for Taobao. Now since taking over alibaba.com, he has helped lead its evolution from what was primarily a directory of business listings into a platform that supports transactions, payments, logistics, marketing and other parts of global commerce.