According to the data analyst, Statista, the AI market in Asia has doubled in market size since 2020, from $33billion to $66billion in 2024. But this is only the beginning as the sector is set to reach $298billion by the end of the decade. One firm helping the market reach this potential is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, Alibaba Cloud.
The Alibaba Cloud AI solutions are being adopted across a diverse range of industries from technology development, imaging, travel to beauty and healthcare. The firm has seen substantial growth across these sectors as a result of a robust ‘Cloud + AI’ development strategy. Specifically, it has witnessed a double-digit increase in public cloud services and remarkable triple-digit growth in AI-related product revenue for the fifth consecutive quarter according to the latest September quarter earnings.
Alibaba Cloud‘s cloud solutions have gone beyond just being operational tools in 2024. Organisations are reimagining their operations and customer engagement strategies using solutions like the revamped AI infrastructure, proprietary Qwen LLM series and advanced AI analytics. These have played a big role in digitally transforming the Asian landscape, as well as enhancing customer experience and operational efficiencies.
Selina Yuan, president of international business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence
Selina Yuan, president of international business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence said: “We are thrilled to witness our robust cloud infrastructure and AI offerings empowering organisations across a diverse range of industries to further drive transformation in 2024 with our partners together.
“As the leading cloud service provider in Asia, we remain committed to helping our customers enhance their operations and deepen their connections with consumers, while collaborating with our ecosystem partners to unlock the full potential of AI and cloud technologies for businesses of all sizes.”
Supporting tech startups across the region
In Japan, Lightblue, a University of Tokyo startup that develops AI solutions such as image analysis and natural language processing with the aim of AI democratisation, has utilised Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen to support the development of its Japanese-language LLMs.
By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s advanced architecture and training capabilities, Lightblue has been able to enhance its offerings for East Asian languages, specifically Japanese. The company also employed other cloud solutions from Alibaba Cloud which provides efficient and secure cloud services such as:
Elastic Compute Service
Server Load Balancer
Object Storage Service
This collaboration also highlights Alibaba Cloud’s commitment to supporting technology startups in pursuing their goals.
“Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen has proven to be the best publicly available option for supporting the Japanese language. By fine-tuning our LLM with Qwen, we significantly improved its accuracy. This collaboration elevates our AI solutions and advances our mission to democratise technology in East Asia,” said Shunichi Taniguchi, director and senior researcher at Lightblue.
Take a picture, success will last longer
In Malaysia, Pictureworks, a provider of photography imaging solutions, has harnessed Alibaba Cloud’s extensive AI and cloud technologies to improve the flexibility and quality of high-resolution image capture.
This collaboration has been successfully implemented at seven premier tourist attractions across Asia, with additional projects underway. Notably, by utilising Alibaba Cloud’s technologies, Pictureworks has produced over 150,000 photos at a theme park in Hong Kong.
Key solutions provided by Alibaba Cloud include:
Platform for Artificial Intelligence (PAI)
Function Compute
Object Storage Services (OSS)
Sharon Tse, CEO of Pictureworks
PAI is designed to streamline the machine learning lifecycle, offering a fully managed service for deploying machine learning models. In turn, this enables Pictureworks to adjust AI models as needed within tight timelines.
Sharon Tse, CEO of Pictureworks said: “Alibaba Cloud’s technology has fundamentally transformed how we capture images at Pictureworks. The flexibility it provides allows us to produce high-quality photographs without relying on traditional setups, like green screens. This innovation not only enhances the quality of our work but also enriches the customer experience by creating more authentic and dynamic photographic memories.”
From startup to big industry player
Singapore’s Atlas, a B2B travel technology provider, has leveraged Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure and AI advancements to cater to a wide array of global travel sellers and low-cost airlines. By utilising Alibaba Cloud’s LLM Qwen and Model Studio platform, Atlas has implemented a digital chatbot that offers 24/7 customer support, efficiently addressing partner inquiries related to booking processes and payment options.
Since partnering with Alibaba Cloud in 2021, Atlas has achieved a 45 per cent reduction in operational costs. This collaboration has helped Atlas evolve from a startup in Singapore to a bigger player in the industry.
Mary Li, founder and CEO of Atlas
“Alibaba Cloud has played a key role in Atlas’s rapid expansion by offering a scalable, secure infrastructure. We were drawn to Alibaba Cloud primarily for its developer-friendly user interface. Our collaboration has now extended to the field of AI, which has significantly enhanced efficiency and improved customer experience,” said Mary Li, founder and CEO of Atlas.
Enhancing customer interactions in China
Drunk Elephant, a skincare brand acquired by Shiseido in 2019, deployed Alibaba Cloud’s foundation model Qwen-max in its new customer chatbot named DRUNKGPT to enhance customer interactions in China. This 24/7 AI-powered skincare assistant responds to inquiries about product recommendations and skincare tips with nuanced and personalised responses. The collaboration aims to deliver a richer brand experience through digital engagement opportunities.
Andy Cai, brand director of Drunk Elephant China
To improve the accuracy and relevance of its responses, DRUNKGPT was further trained on the brand’s knowledge database and optimised using various Alibaba Cloud AI services, including Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), vector recall, and a multi-agent framework.
“Utilising Alibaba Cloud’s advanced AI technologies allows us to create a more personalised and responsive experience for our customers,” said Andy Cai, brand director of Drunk Elephant China. “We are excited about the potential of DRUNKGPT to transform how consumers connect with our brand.”
AI Nutritionist with personalised tips
Haleon China, a consumer health company, is utilising Alibaba Cloud’s large language model (LLM) Qwen, along with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology to launch a specialised AI nutrition assistant solution called iNutrition for its Chinese consumers. This AI-powered expert accurately interprets consumer inquiries, delivering nutritional guidance. It results from the integration of Qwen’s capabilities and Haleon’s internal nutritional knowledge base.
“By integrating Alibaba Cloud’s large model Qwen with Haleon’s years of accumulated internal knowledge base, we provide one-on-one services to consumers, offering nutritional and health advice that is more closely tailored to each consumer’s individual circumstances” said Bing Liu, digital and tech head, Haleon Greater China.
The post Alibaba Cloud Reveals Impact of Its AI Services Across Various Asian Industries appeared first on The Fintech Times.
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