Suning's Joshua Xiang Discusses AI Technology to Enhance E-commerce User Experience

China is Able to Compete with US in Artificial Intelligence

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Oct 24, 2016, 08:54 ET

NANJING, China, Oct. 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- On October 9, 2016, the Berkeley Sino-US Summit was held at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). The main focus of the summit is to establish connections between Chinese companies and investment resources and firms in the Bay Area that specialize in the science, technology, engineering and commercial development. During an Artificial Intelligence (AI) themed discussion forum, industrial leaders including Joshua Xiang, executive vice president of Suning IT headquarters, Gregory LaBlanc, principal of Business College, UCB, Michael Li, Head of Analytics & Data at LinkedIn, Bo Tao, engineering vice president of Cheetah Mobile Inc. and Reynold Xin, co-founder of Databricks had an enthusiastic discussion regarding AI technology between China and the US.

Greg LaBlanc (first from left), principal of Business College of CUB, Machael Li (second from left), LinkedIn and Bo Tao(third from left) engineering vice president of Cheetah Mobile Inc., Reynold Xin (first from right), co-founder of Databricks attended the Forum

Speaking about the innovation and development of technologies between the two countries, Joshua Xiang pointed out:"The gap between the two countries is narrowing, especially in the field of AI; many Chinese companies are able to compete with Silicon Valley now." AI technology has had a profound impact on retail business and many global retailers are implementing AI strategies in an attempt to revolutionize the industry. Suning, as a company with the motto of "technology first" has always focused on technology innovations. He also addressed that Suning as China's biggest retail company is strengthening its efforts on AI technology, striving to become the leader in "Smart Commerce."

Joshua Xiang initially announced a "conversational e-Commerce platform," which Suning is currently researching and developing. The current procedure consumers use to shop is not the most convenient method. In the future, Suning will apply AI technology - for instance a Chatbot - to promote "smart retail" and to create more convenience in the shopping experience for customers. For example, using a Chatbot, buyers simply give shopping instructions to the Chatbot and it will select the most suitable commodities based on previous purchase records of the buyer. Meanwhile, the payment and delivery will all be executed automatically, without any additional operations.

This visit to the US also carries a mission of exchanging IT technology and fully showcasing technological achievements of Suning's US R&D Center (SURDC). As SURDC's three-year anniversary is approaching, the Institute launched a public open house with a focused display of scientific and technological achievements from the past 3 years. Among them, the Big Data Lab showcased a credit scoring module, anti-fraud module, chart code and machine learning platform developed to guarantee the systematic security of Suning's online platform, suning.com. The Innovative Application Lab showcased their AR project and gave visitors the opportunity to experience the pleasure of virtual shopping. Last but not least, the Search/Applied AI Lab showcased the concept of a conversational e-commerce platform -- a combination of AI and chatbot technologies. The presentations reveal Suning's strategic vision.

The participants were able to get a feel for Suning's IT pursuits and vision through the presentations by the SURDC. Suning has had a focus on technology since the beginning. Currently, the company has development centers in Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai and Silicon Valley, with over 5,000 IT technicians to form the backbone of Suning's innovative application of IT technologies.

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SOURCE Suning Commerce