Double 11 in the AI Era: The Collective Leap of Alibaba Cloud and Its Partners

When people enter the Xinjiekou Station in Nanjing, Yingkoudao Station in Tianjin, or Wuyi Square Station in Changsha in November, or pass by the Tianfu Twin Towers in Chengdu at night, it's hard not to be attracted by the illuminated LED screens.

This is an outdoor advertisement placed by Alibaba Cloud on the Tianfu Twin Towers in Chengdu during the Double 11 period.

What appears on the screens are not the familiar traditional Double 11 slogans like "The lowest price of the year" or "Limited-time rush purchase," but the eye-catching advertising slogan "Smart benefits are here on 11.11. Use Alibaba Cloud for AI."

In previous Double 11 events, the advertisements in the subway stations of these core areas were often from consumer brands or platforms. But this year, there is a typical To B player - Alibaba Cloud. Instead of directly promoting products to individual consumers, it chose to convey new signals to the public in key cities other than Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou.

Fifteen years ago, Alibaba Cloud and Tmall's Double 11 started their respective journeys at the same time. One was born in the real - world environment of supporting massive transactions and gradually became a globally leading full - stack artificial intelligence service provider; the other germinated from festival culture, evolved into an online big promotion, and has now become a global business phenomenon, shaping the rhythm and imagination of China's e - commerce.

Today, when the symbol of "Double 11" enters the AI era, its meaning is no longer just a one - time discount event for consumers. It is also a node where we can comprehensively observe the market temperature, technological capabilities, and ecological changes: Can AI products be truly understood and purchased? Are partners willing to increase their investment in the AI track? What attitudes do different types of enterprises hold towards AI upgrading and transformation?

At the Yunqi Conference in September, Alibaba defined three stages towards Super Artificial Intelligence (ASI) around this goal - intelligent emergence, autonomous action, and self - iteration, and made two clear judgments: Large models are the next - generation operating systems; Super AI clouds are the next - generation computers. This assertion also makes the outside world rethink where the boundaries of AI will extend.

If the Yunqi Conference is a strategic declaration, then this Double 11 is a practical exercise for Alibaba Cloud's full - stack AI capabilities, the confidence of ecological partners, and the turning of industrial signals. It will verify whether Alibaba Cloud can transform its technological advantages into ecological potential and make AI truly enter the daily business of enterprises.

The real story is hidden in the surging order numbers, the transformation trajectories of partners, and the long - term proposition of "how a cloud computing company evolves its relationship with the ecosystem in the AI era."

01. Tens of millions of orders in the first hour show the market's confidence in Alibaba Cloud's AI

At midnight on November 1st, Alibaba Cloud officially launched its Double 11 promotion.

In the first hour, the customer order amount from distribution partners quickly exceeded the "tens of millions of yuan" mark, refreshing Alibaba Cloud's performance during the start - up phase of Double 11 in recent years. Most of these orders are related to AI: large - model calls, GPU computing power packages, intelligent application solutions based on Bailian...

It can be seen that the market's wait - and - see attitude towards AI is weakening. More importantly, Alibaba Cloud has carried out systematic adjustments with ecological partners around its AI capabilities and is moving towards a structural upgrade centered on AI capabilities and ecological incentives, which can release the ecological potential of the AI cloud.

First of all, in the AI era, the sales logic of the cloud computing industry has undergone fundamental changes. In the early days of cloud computing, the cloud partner systems of all manufacturers followed the same logic: Find many partners who are familiar with various billing rules, discount strategies, and resource package combination plans, and are good at acquiring customers through telemarketing, events, and online operations, thus forming a "distribution network" suitable for the whole country.

This model was highly efficient during the rapid popularization phase of IaaS. However, in the AI era, its limitations have gradually emerged. Compared with simply using cloud resources, customers want to use AI more. Therefore, all manufacturers will face continuous questions from customers: "Should I use a large model?" "Which business segment is more suitable for a pilot?" "Besides buying resources, can you help me with the solution and delivery?"

To answer these new questions, a new partner capability structure is needed. In the view of Li Peng, the general manager of the AI Ecological Partner Management Department of Alibaba Cloud's Public Cloud Business Unit, the adjustment of Alibaba Cloud's ecological partner strategy since the beginning of this year is essentially to select "service - oriented partners" from "transaction - oriented partners." When releasing the partner ecosystem upgrade plan in April, Alibaba Cloud clearly stated that it would measure ecological partners "centered on service capabilities" and emphasized that in the future partner system, "sales resources" would no longer be the only dimension.

Compared with the core capabilities of transaction - oriented partners in the "customer acquisition and deal - closing" process, the role of service - oriented partners is more "versatile": They need to understand the business, understand the architecture, and lead the team to carry out migration, deployment, intelligent agent development, and continuous iteration.

At present, global cloud providers are trying to "abandon" transaction - oriented partners. However, the difference with Alibaba Cloud is that besides screening, Alibaba Cloud is helping partners "shift gears" and guiding them safely and stably from the old track to the new one.

Alibaba Cloud has found several paths around partner upgrading, including policies, rights and interests, order, and empowerment.

At the policy level, Alibaba Cloud has designed a clearer revenue distribution mechanism for AI - related products; at the rights and interests level, Alibaba Cloud has increased its resource investment in core partners, not limited to product promotion and price support, and will invite partners to co - create, including joint marketing activities and co - creation of sample projects in standard rights and interests; at the order level, Alibaba Cloud has further set more detailed rules regarding customer ownership and cross - regional operations; at the same time, to guide partners to better transform and improve their full - stack AI capabilities, Alibaba Cloud has also formulated a comprehensive training and empowerment plan.

Given the same policies and opportunities, not every partner makes adjustments at the same speed. Within Alibaba Cloud, a group of partners who have made faster transformations can be clearly seen, and they often have several commonalities:

First, the CEO has a clear strategic judgment on AI. The leaders of these partners no longer regard AI as a new product category for short - term promotion, but as the main track that is crucial to the company's survival in the next few years. They are willing to make substantial investments in human resources, organization, and training, and may even adjust the proportion of their original main business to make AI business a real growth engine.

Second, they originally had the gene of MSP or technical services. These partners are familiar with the business architecture of customers, have teams stationed at the customer site for operation and maintenance, optimization, and secondary development, and originally played the roles of "system integrators," "consultants + deliverers." When customers put forward the demand of "I want to introduce a large model in a certain link," they can quickly connect business scenarios with technical paths.

Third, they are the first to use AI tools and platforms internally. Many leading partners have already connected to the Tongyi series of large - model products on a large scale and have accumulated reusable experience in pre - sales solution writing, code development, and market operation. This "self - use practice" gives them more abundant examples and firmer confidence when discussing AI implementation with customers.

In addition to helping the original ecological partners transform, Alibaba Cloud is also constantly inviting more AI Native partners. These partners often focus on intelligent agents, Agent platforms, and vertical industry AI applications as their core businesses from the very beginning, and are more concerned about how to deeply and thoroughly implement AI in a specific scenario.

In this way, Alibaba Cloud's AI ecosystem presents a pattern of two - pronged progress: One is the reconstruction of old partners on the original system, and the other is the natural growth of new partners starting from AI.

What enables these two forces to move forward is Alibaba Cloud's full - stack AI system. It is like a solid framework, providing certainty for the entire ecosystem - making partners dare to invest and act, and also enabling AI to truly land in the industry. The ecosystem is not an appendage to Alibaba Cloud, but another form of externalization of its technical strength.

02. Only with full - stack AI capabilities can the boundaries be continuously expanded

In Alibaba Cloud's logic, the relationship with partners is a long - term strategic community.

The prerequisite for becoming a strategic community is that cloud providers need to have a sufficiently solid technical foundation, which can not only support the most cutting - edge AI applications but also reserve enough "service space" for partners, so that they have something to do and value to deliver.

Alibaba Cloud happens to be one of the only two global providers (the other is Google) with full - stack self - developed AI capabilities:

Computing power layer: It provides a stable, controllable, and scalable AI computing power foundation;

Machine learning platform (PAI): It enables enterprises to complete data processing, model training, fine - tuning, and deployment on the cloud;

Model service layer (Bailian): It aggregates multiple models such as Tongyi Qianwen and Tongyi Wanxiang and supports the hosting and calling of open - source models;

Application layer: Alibaba Cloud and its partners jointly build intelligent agents, business systems, and a set of solutions for industry scenarios.

It's difficult to explain the value of full - stack AI clearly with just a few technical terms, but when it comes to the details of specific industries, the value will be magnified.

In the satellite communication industry, Asia - Pacific Starcom provides a typical example. On the front line of business, the problems faced by Asia - Pacific Starcom are actually very simple: Once the terminal station goes offline, the reasons may span multiple aspects such as equipment, links, and weather, and the troubleshooting cost is relatively high; in the shipping scenario, the equipment maintenance cost is high and there is a shortage of professional personnel.

This is Liu Wanbo, the director of the software R & D center of Asia - Pacific Satellite Broadband Communication (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., sharing the cooperation with Alibaba Cloud at the Yunqi Conference.

Alibaba Cloud's full - stack capabilities have effectively helped Asia - Pacific Starcom solve these problems: Using Bailian + Tongyi Qianwen for "full - link diagnosis of terminal station offline," automatically extracting logs, comparing features, and giving preliminary judgments to improve troubleshooting efficiency and customer experience; relying on the cloud's computing power and data capabilities to support equipment monitoring and early warning in the smart shipping scenario.

Only with a fully - stack AI can it support such complex cross - link and cross - system applications.

In the education scenario, the answer from Qitian Education is different from that of Asia - Pacific Starcom.

This service provider deeply involved in K12 intelligent marking initially only had one problem to solve: "Can AI correct compositions more like a teacher?" So they cooperated with Alibaba Cloud and conducted experiments based on the Tongyi large model: The model learned a large number of composition samples and scoring logics and mastered "what a good expression is"; relying on the Bailian platform, they built an intelligent marking agent for teachers to use at any time; finally, the system can not only score but also generate an ability profile for each student and transform the weak points into targeted learning suggestions.

What teachers see is just a reduction in marking workload and more detailed feedback; what is operating behind is a whole system from computing power, models to toolchains.

"Can think, can talk, can guard the house" - this is the positioning of the intelligent breeding system by Tieqili and Shengdile. This solution was jointly developed by Alibaba Cloud, Tongyi Qianwen, and the ecological partner Changhong Jiahua: Alibaba Cloud provided the computing power and model foundation, Tongyi Qianwen assumed the understanding and decision - making capabilities, and Changhong Jiahua was responsible for making AI "take root." The value of AI lies not only in the innovation of cutting - edge industries but also in injecting new capabilities into traditional industries.

This system seamlessly connects cloud - based algorithms with barn equipment, enabling AI to "see" camera videos, "hear" sensor signals, and "smell" ammonia; the Bailian platform is the "eyes," analyzing video streams 24/7, identifying biological safety risks and abnormal animal behaviors in real - time, and issuing millisecond - level warnings; Tongyi Qianwen is the "brain," integrating breeding knowledge and expert experience to become a handy assistant for breeders.

There are countless similar examples. Alibaba Cloud's AI is penetrating into all industries, from the intelligent upgrading of traditional industries such as manufacturing, animal husbandry, and the clothing industry to the technological co - creation in emerging fields such as satellite communication and embodied intelligence. The boundaries are continuously expanding in cooperation with ecological partners.

03. Don't forget the "last mile"

During this year's Double 11, Alibaba Cloud placed Double 11 outdoor advertisements in four new first - tier cities: Nanjing, Changsha, Tianjin, and Chengdu, and jointly appeared with ecological partners such as Chengyun Technology, Lingyun Chuangxiang, Xiaoniu Cloud, Dingfeng Cloud, and Sizhi Network. During last year's Double 11, Alibaba Cloud appeared with multiple partners in cities such as Chongqing, Qingdao, Wuhan, Fuzhou, and Zhengzhou. Two consecutive years of actions are the implementation of Alibaba Cloud's long - term path of deeply cultivating the regional market and also show its determination to extend the power of digitalization and intelligence to every city in China.

This is an outdoor advertisement placed by Alibaba Cloud at the Yingkoudao Subway Station in Tianjin during the Double 11 period.

Looking back at Alibaba Cloud's growth trajectory, three stages of leap can be clearly seen. In the first stage, it helped a large number of enterprises "go to the cloud for the first time"; in the second stage, partners recommended various capabilities such as databases, security, storage, and containers to customers through combined solutions, enabling enterprises to "deeply use the cloud"; in the third stage, it helps all enterprises use full - stack AI.

AI projects often involve business reconstruction, data governance, system integration, and continuous optimization, which require high - frequency and long - term offline collaboration between the team and customers. Therefore, the last mile of AI implementation must be emphasized. Alibaba Cloud is promoting the evolution of the ecological system towards "localized operation."

In terms of structural design, Li Peng told us that in the future, partners will be divided into two types of roles: One type is the "designer" - type partner, which has national - level consulting, solution design, and industry integration capabilities and is responsible for helping customers build an AI strategic blueprint; the other type is the "construction team" - type partner, which deeply cultivates the local market, is responsible for project implementation and successful execution for customers, and provides "24/7 on - site" service capabilities. The former is responsible for innovation and standardization, and the latter is responsible for delivery and localization, greatly shortening the distance from the solution to practice.

For example, if a traditional manufacturing enterprise in Central China wants to optimize its production process through AI but lacks the ability to plan a complete architecture; then the designer partner at the headquarters can help them sort out the production link and plan the model deployment strategy, while the local "construction team" will be stationed on - site for a long time, responsible for providing model training, system optimization, and operation and maintenance support for the customer.

The four new first - tier cities where Alibaba Cloud chose to place advertisements during this Double 11 are exactly at the critical point of industrial structure upgrading and rapid increase in AI penetration rate: The manufacturing, consumer goods, education, government affairs, and other fields are collectively facing a peak demand for intelligent transformation.

Alibaba Cloud placed advertisements in these cities and jointly showed its brand with ecological partners, which was almost