An exclusive AI sales team for merchants? We conducted a 5-minute actual test, and the results were unexpected.

As the wave of AI technology sweeps across all industries, a core question looms before all merchants: What exactly can AI bring to my business?

If 24/7 online service and smooth Q&A like a real person are just the "basic version" of AI sales, then integrating the entire operation process from online consultation to offline reservation, providing immersive reception in the form of digital humans and voice, and enabling multiple AI marketing experts to perform their respective duties are the "advanced version" that determines whether AI can truly create value.

Baidu Merchant Intelligent Agent aims to challenge this "advanced version" and is said to enable every merchant to have a dedicated AI sales team. Is this just a fancy marketing story or a real technological breakthrough that can reduce costs and increase efficiency? We've heard so many grand narratives about AI implementation, but this time, we decided to try it ourselves to find out for merchants in all industries.

We simulated the creation of an English learning business targeting workplace elites - "Krypton English Corner". We prepared three documents: brand positioning information, product service materials, and an AI dialogue corpus. By filling in and supplementing this business information on the Baidu Merchant Intelligent Agent platform, we successfully created a "gold medal sales" intelligent agent. The entire process of building the intelligent agent took less than 5 minutes. The most profound initial impression was the high integration of AI. Everything from generating the agent's avatar to optimizing the tags of business materials could be completed with a single click.

However, an excellent salesperson is not just about form but also about substance. In subsequent dialogue tests, this intelligent agent immediately demonstrated its powerful "strong thinking" ability.

It didn't passively wait for instructions. Instead, it actively asked follow - up questions at key points in the conversation to ensure the communication didn't break off. The "yes or no" propositions it presented could not only help customers clarify their own needs but also accurately record user information in the background and ultimately naturally guide users to leave their contact information.

This "strong thinking" advantage stems from Baidu's upgrade of the underlying technology of the merchant intelligent agent - Baidu's self - developed intelligent agent base, the first of its kind focusing on the business field. Its core is a "one - brain, multiple - experts" collaborative architecture led by the "planning brain" with multiple expert roles. The planning brain uses the Chain of Thought (CoT) technology to build a sample library of over ten million marketing thought chains, enabling AI decision - making to have a human - like thinking mechanism that combines fast and slow thinking.

Under the "brain", multiple experts perform their respective duties: the marketing expert ensures that the dialogue understands marketing, the answering expert relies on a real - time knowledge base to ensure the accuracy of answers, and the recommendation expert is responsible for accurate insight and seizing the best conversion opportunity. This architecture, which is deeply adapted to the business customer - acquisition scenario, is different from general - purpose AI bases. It can deeply simulate real sales logic and achieve precise decomposition and efficient execution of conversion tasks.

If "strong thinking" is the underlying logic, then "understanding marketing" is the core externalized ability. Here, "understanding" is not just about high - EQ dialogue skills. It's also about the ability to timely call various tools to provide solutions and actively promote conversion in the service process.

Imagine an anxious user consulting course information late at night. After accurately answering basic questions about courses, teaching staff, etc., once the intelligent agent senses the user's in - depth intention, it will immediately call the "material reading" tool to guide the user to leave their contact information to obtain exclusive exam - preparation materials, thus completing a high - quality lead conversion. Then, at an appropriate time, it can use the "coupon activity" tool to push a limited - time trial course coupon, ultimately completing the marketing closed - loop from consultation to transaction.

This is far from simple Q&A. It's a well - designed, step - by - step full - link automated marketing plan. Currently, this set of marketing tools can meet the specific needs of over 30 industries.

For merchants with physical stores, the value chain of the intelligent agent can be smoothly extended to offline. This time, we also tested the "service reservation" tool and found that merchants can complete the deployment with just a few steps. For users, after an online consultation, the intelligent agent will, based on their intention, actively initiate a phone call or an invitation to visit the store. This seamless closed - loop from online consultation to offline store visit greatly improves the invitation efficiency and the final transaction possibility.

However, the limitation of text communication lies in the lack of realism and emotional warmth. As market demands become increasingly diverse and customized, simulating real voice conversations and even face - to - face communication has become the last piece of the puzzle to add a "human touch" to online marketing.

Baidu Merchant Intelligent Agent has achieved this through the "full - modality x multi - intelligent agent" solution.

When a customer needs rigorous and accurate legal advice, a calm and rational "AI lawyer" who understands professional terms can provide services via a voice call. It can build trust much more efficiently than cold text. It can accurately give advice and intelligently summarize the dialogue information.

When a customer wants to consult a complex decoration business, a vivid "digital human" can provide one - on - one immersive reception, carefully inquire about customized needs, and complete in - depth invitations, effectively promoting business conversion. Most importantly, merchants can manage up to 50 such AI roles simultaneously, creating a dedicated AI sales empire covering different businesses and scenarios in one - stop.

So, going back to our original question: Can the AI era really create a dedicated AI sales team for every merchant? After this in - depth experience, our answer is very close to "yes".