The global trade market is entering a fundamental turning point from the past human-centered B2B (business-to-business) model to A2A, that is, transactions between AI (artificial intelligence) agents. Going forward, an era will come in which AI agents automatically perform every process, from sourcing and negotiation to orders and logistics.
Shawn Yang, head of Asia-Pacific (APAC) at Alibaba.com, said this at a press briefing held on the 28th at Lotte Hotel Seoul in Jung District, Seoul. He said, Korea's excellent products are in very high demand in the global market, and Our goal is more efficient consolidation of Korean small and midsize corporations with global buyers.
Alibaba.com officially launched in Korea on the day the AI service Accio Work for small and midsize corporations. Accio Work is an AI service that understands user instructions and generates answers, like ChatGPT and Gemini. However, it is differentiated as an enterprise AI agent platform specialized for trade operations.
Accio Work supports tasks needed across the entire global business process, including market research, product planning, sourcing, price negotiations, product listing, global marketing, and store operations. While existing Generative AI was closer to an assistant that answers users' questions, Accio Work aims to be an AI agent team that converts user instructions into real tasks and executes them autonomously.
Alibaba.com is a global B2B e-commerce platform for consolidation of buyers and sellers around the world. In manufacturing, exports, and other diverse industries, more than 200,000 sellers supply products in over 40 categories and more than 200 million items. Over the past year, new Alibaba.com sign-ups in Korea rose 19%, and the total number of sellers increased 25%. The number of purchase inquiries Korean sellers received from global buyers also jumped 128%.
Accio Work was developed to address the language and regulatory barriers, talent acquisition challenges, and workload burdens that small and midsize corporations face when entering global markets. Accio Work helps users easily understand knowledge required for global trade, and AI agents assist operations 24 hours a day to improve efficiency. It also automates various repetitive chores previously handled by people so that corporations can focus on high value-added tasks.
Accio Work promotes a plug-and-play approach that allows companies to build business tools tailored to their workflows without separate coding. Products, stores, and product listings and launches can be completed in a short time, and it can be linked not only with Alibaba.com but also with personal stores and email. Various files, including contracts, quotations, and product specification sheets, can also be managed in one integrated platform.
Accio Work promotes a plug-and-play approach that allows companies to build business tools tailored to their workflows without separate coding. It also offers scalability to link not only with Alibaba.com but also with personal stores and email. Various files, including contracts, quotations, and product specification sheets, can also be managed in one integrated platform.
Potential judgment errors or liability issues that AI agents may cause are resolved through a final human approval process. James Zhang, head of products and services at Alibaba.com, said, Important procedures cannot be handled by AI alone and must go through the user's final confirmation, and The execution and judgment processes are all recorded so users can check and stop tasks at any time.
Because Accio Work handles internal corporate materials such as contracts, quotations, and product specification sheets and is also linked with external platforms, information security is cited as a major task. On this, Deputy Minister Yang said, We will ensure the safety of user data by complying with the laws and regulations of each country where we conduct business.
Accio Work's pricing plans are offered on a monthly or annual subscription basis. It applies a credit system deducted in proportion to actual tasks processed, and free credits are provided to users of all tiers. Alibaba.com plans to additionally introduce customized pricing plans for Korean sellers in the future.
Meanwhile, with this launch, Alibaba.com also unveiled the Korea institutional sector of the Accio Work-based AI startup competition CoCreate Pitch 2026. The Korea institutional sector will run across three tracks: general small and midsize corporations, 0-to-1 startups, and students, with total prize money of 2 billion won. The Korea final will be held on Aug. 25 in Seoul, and the winning team will be given the opportunity to participate as Korea's representative in the global CoCreate 2026 summit in the United States.