Alibaba.com said on Wednesday that it is rolling out a new tool that promises to take much of the manual work out of sourcing products overseas.
Accio Sourcing Toolkit is a plugin for its Accio Work platform that automates tasks such as finding suppliers, comparing options, reaching out in bulk, negotiating terms and placing orders. Alibaba said in a statement that the toolkit relies on AI skills trained specifically for sourcing work, along with data drawn from real trading activity.
The company said the centerpiece of the launch is a negotiation feature that runs around the clock. Sellers and sourcing professionals set their own targets, such as pricing, lead times, and product specs, and the toolkit’s AI agents then handle back-and-forth talks with suppliers on their own, following up as needed and filling in missing details.
Alibaba.com’s Accio Work platform
Alibaba said this solves a common headache in international sourcing: time zone gaps and slow replies that can stall deals for days. The system also pulls from more than 100 million products in Alibaba’s catalog and over two decades of trade data to help identify sourcing opportunities in the first place.
Aside from the negotiation feature, the toolkit brings the whole sourcing process into one place, letting users move from finding a product to communicating with suppliers to paying for an order without switching platforms.
It also includes what Alibaba calls “Super Sourcing” or “Autopilot Mode,” which automates repetitive sourcing tasks while still letting users weigh in on major decisions, including comparing suppliers side by side or setting up sourcing tasks that kick off automatically from a product link, image or document.
The Accio Sourcing Toolkit is available now through the Accio Work Plugin Channel, where users can install it and link it to their Alibaba.com account.
