AI redraws *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, JD weaves its supply chain into the storyline.

JD's content ecosystem is growing rapidly on its most solid supply chain foundation with the empowerment of AI.

At 8 p.m. on October 31, the digital avatars of JD's live-streaming procurement specialist Daji and influencer Tuniang traveled into *Along the River During the Qingming Festival*, blending traditional Chinese street culture with cyber technology.

This is the opening of the live broadcast *JD 11.11 Cyber Gala: Surprise Night Travel*. The two accidentally arrive in a "Cyber Bianjing", where they have to find six extraordinary talents in the painting and hold a grand JD 11.11 ceremony at Fan Tower to return to the real world. Following this main quest, the gala features ten programs including talent shows, song and dance performances, comedies, and detective short dramas, making this shopping festival gala feel like a binge-worthy series. Audiences can also follow the plot to find clues, participate in betting quizzes, receive red envelopes, and place orders in the live stream room.

The entire gala's plot and programs are performed entirely by digital avatars. The ten programs are selected from an AI creation competition launched by JD, and the AI video works of ten creators stand out and are presented at this cyber gala.

In this "Cyber Bianjing", JD's autonomous delivery vehicles drive through ancient streets, Song Dynasty literati step onto the talent show stage, and the "Twelve Ji" cross-dimensionally perform esports adventures. Li Qingzhao and Zhao Mingcheng also have a new way to meet: guessing lantern riddles at the lantern fair, composing and responding to poems across screens, and the ancients' tender affection is made into a love story.

The gala was broadcast simultaneously on six major platforms: JD, Kuaishou, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Bilibili and WeChat Channels. Data shows that the total number of live broadcast views of the JD 11.11 Cyber Gala across all platforms reached 60.96 million, and discussions such as "How many tokens does an AI gala consume" sparked heated debates across the internet. 

Compared with the eye-catching data, what deserves more attention is its model innovation. JD replaced the core creative subjects of this Double 11 gala with digital avatars and AI creators, opened a co-creation channel to the public, making the AI gala a brand new path for content exploration.

An ancient painting created 900 years ago is reanimated by AI

*Along the River During the Qingming Festival* was created by Zhang Zeduan, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. It depicts the street scenes along the Bian River in the capital Bianjing (today's Kaifeng, Henan Province). Cargo ships shuttle on the river, and shops line the streets one after another. The JD 11.11 Cyber Gala takes this ancient painting as inspiration, bringing audiences to travel into *Along the River During the Qingming Festival* together, reactivating this 900-year-old ancient painting with AI.

The head of JD's content ecosystem innovation team told 36Kr that this painting essentially tells stories of prosperous business operations in the Song Dynasty, which fits perfectly with the e-commerce shopping festival. Many business activities in the painting have their counterparts in modern life: the cargo ships on the river correspond to today's express delivery, and the waiters carrying food trays correspond to today's delivery riders. To create a sense of contrast, JD's merchant ships also sail on the river, JD's robots run on the streets, and the doctors in the medical hall are also replaced by robots.

A main storyline of traveling to find people connects programs of different styles together.

The person in charge told 36Kr that previously, programs in a gala were relatively independent, and long advertisement introductions would easily interrupt the viewing experience. This AI gala for JD 11.11 lets the characters in the drama move forward with tasks, giving the audience a reason to keep looking for answers.

Who should be responsible for producing these programs is another question. This time, JD launched the creation contest "Rebirth: I am the Master of Bianjing" on Kuaishou, Keling AI and JD's own platform. More than 100 AI creators participated, and finally 10 were selected to participate in the creation of gala programs. The contest also set up different awards to reward some creators. The JD team is responsible for the main storyline and overall direction of the Cyber Gala, while creators can freely exert their creativity with the help of tools such as Kuaishou Keling AI and JD Lingjing AIGC platform.

As a result, ten different "creative ideas" are contained in the same painting.

For example, in the program *Glorious Scenes of the Great Song Dynasty*, a huge koi jumps out of the water, and then a beautiful lotus village comes into the audience's view. The video also features Song Dynasty tea whisking, the traditional game of floating wine cups along a winding stream, and literati composing poems against each other. The AI video was created by a 33-year-old creator in Chengdu (social media account @Wangxu). He used to work in IT software testing, started to get in touch with AI creation around June 2025, and now is a full-time AI blogger. He completed the entire program on his own. 

Talking about his experience of producing complex scenes all by himself this time, the creator admitted: "The most unforgettable part is a complex shot with multi-scene switching, including tea whisking, floating wine cups along the winding stream, fairies playing the piano, etc. It requires reference from many different pictures, large-scale dynamic effects and complex camera movements. I tried many times but failed to get the desired result. It happened that the Keling AI tool was upgraded to version 4.0 at that time, and new features such as multi-modal reference and keyframes directly solved my problem, lowered the threshold for this kind of diverse creation, and finally helped me produce the beautiful long shot I wanted."

The Chengdu-based creator said that he made aesthetic videos of giant lotus flowers in the past. This time JD expanded it into a Song Dynasty lotus village where poets compose poems against each other. The first version of the tour scene was too close to reality. After the second communication, the two sides decided to add more visual wonders and immersive experience. The huge koi and first-person perspective shots appeared in the subsequent revisions.

There is also a program called *Bianjing Love Story*. Li Qingzhao and Zhao Mingcheng guessed the same lantern riddle at the lantern fair, then got separated by the crowd and looked for each other. At the poetry gathering, they looked at each other across a piece of paper, smiled knowingly, and finally walked into the daily life in the study. The two figures recorded in history books thus have their tender moments witnessed by audiences. 

The moments that make people smile knowingly are also the parts that the creative team spent the most time on. "The movements are done, but the emotional connection may not come out." The creator of this program said that she used to be an internet product manager (social media account @WAI-Listen), and now she and her team are full-time engaged in AI image production. The Keling AI project team provided several groups of character combinations, and she chose this pair because she was moved by the "resonant" relationship between the two.

In addition to external creators participating, the Cyber Gala also features works from JD's own team. The "Cyber Golden Roll" segment that awards creators and brands was produced by the Suqian AI video generation team of JD Retail Customer Service. Most members of this team transferred from customer service positions. Out of their passion for AI creation, they created images such as delivery riders riding delivery trucks on the red carpet.

From independent external creators, invited influencers to JD's own employees, JD's content ecosystem is composed of more and more diverse forces. JD gathered creators from different backgrounds under the same theme, and gave the audience a reason to watch the entire gala through a plot-driven show.

Brands integrated into the story bring new expressions to business

Before the JD 11.11 Cyber Gala was broadcast, the gesture dance "Bianjing Shake" choreographed by JD for the show went viral online. This pre-heating marketing campaign let the public get to know Cyber Bianjing in advance, with related content gaining over 180 million views across the internet, and more than 100,000 people shot videos of the same dance. 

In the Cyber Gala officially broadcast at 8 p.m. on October 31, product introductions from categories such as computers and digital products, home appliances and furniture, automobiles, healthcare, and supermarkets are naturally integrated into the plot and interactions. Audiences can follow the story to find clues, and also grab red envelopes and snap up high-quality products. The JD Cyber Gala project team prefers to describe this experience as "silent purchase", where audiences can choose products according to their own needs.

Haier's appearance is integrated into a talent show.

The digital avatar of the head of Haier Smart Home's JD channel in China changed into ancient costume, sat on the judge's seat of the talent show, participated in awarding prizes, and danced "Bianjing Shake" with everyone.

When this brand digital avatar appears, Haier's products are displayed synchronously. The "AI food sentinel" function of Haier's 560-liter large whale refrigerator, full-space fresh-keeping and other capabilities are naturally integrated into the plot of the Cyber Gala. For consumers, how to manage ingredients and keep them fresh is far easier to understand than a bunch of technical terms. The brand provides products, and creators are responsible for designing plots where the products meet daily life.

"The gala is mainly used for breaking through circles and promoting products to potential customers, making it easier for people to understand complete smart home solutions." The head of marketing for Haier Smart Home's JD channel in China told 36Kr. This time they hope to reach young family users who are decorating their homes, planning to replace old home appliances, and love AI content.

This cooperation is in line with Haier's larger AI transformation direction. Haier designated 2025 as the "AI First Year", promoting all employees, all businesses and all processes to embrace AI. In 2026, the group proposed to fully build an AI-native organization. Zhou Yunjie, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Haier Group, said that enterprises "either co-evolve with AI, or be marginalized by AI". This joint co-creation of digital avatars and Cyber Gala plots between Haier and JD is a specific attempt to let AI truly stand in the front line of brand communication.

This path has seen continuous practices. On January 25 this year, Haier's AI president digital avatar and JD's AI digital avatar Ma Honghong launched a live broadcast in the form of a podcast interview, driving Haier's in-store live broadcast traffic up by more than 200% year-on-year. During this year's JD 618, JD's JOY and Haier Brothers entered the Cyber Gala together to perform programs, matching classic IPs with new AI gameplay, and instantly creating a strong nostalgic atmosphere. The head of marketing for Haier Smart Home's JD channel in China said that the previous cooperation received high attention, and the communication response exceeded expectations, which prompted them to continue to participate in the JD 11.11 Cyber Gala this time.

For long-term cooperation, the marketing head believes that AI plots should stably convey brand and product value, driving search, consultation and new customer conversion. He also looks forward to more granular content attribution data to help brands determine which content brings effective demand.

The appearance of computer and digital brands is related to games. In the program *Twelve Ji: Everything Everywhere All at Once* of the JD 11.11 Cyber Gala, the digital avatar girl group "Twelve Ji" shuttles between different game scenes, singing a light and lively song integrated with game elements. The members of "Twelve Ji" are long-operated virtual "mascot girls" of 12 hardware brands, including Lenovo's Savior Ji, ASUS's Tianxuan Ji, and HKC's Aurora Ji.

"Twelve Ji" takes JoyAI as its technical base, targeting young consumers. This time, brand roles jointly perform an esports adventure program, with products softly implanted along with the plot. The head of JD's content ecosystem innovation team introduced that this form not only targets fans who are familiar with the characters, but also hopes to attract new users, letting them start with getting to know the characters, and further understand the brands behind them.

What brands want to convey can be more than product functions. The person in charge told 36Kr that production stories, designers' creative ideas can all become sources of AI content creation.

Brands' demand for content also brings income to AI creators. One of the reasons why creator @Wangxu took the Cyber Gala project is that "it has a pretty good budget". Another creator said that after the gala program works were posted on his social media account, partners from related industries have noticed his team and learned about their creative style through these works.

JD collaborates with major brands to explore new paths to drive conversion through AI content: brands put forward creative demands, creators get project opportunities and a creative stage, consumers are attracted by AI content and reach products directly. This approach enables mutual empowerment and two-way success between content creation and business growth.

JD's content ecosystem advantages stem from the depth of its supply chain

When content platforms do e-commerce, they need to complete a full set of transaction capabilities around user interests, including products, services, and fulfillment; while when e-commerce platforms do content, they already have a strong supply chain. Starting from the foundation of products, prices and services, making innovations in the content link before users place orders is obviously more handy and easier to implement.

The head of JD's content ecosystem innovation team told 36Kr that JD's advantage in content innovation lies in being "close to goods". The full-category product supply and thoughtful services have already provided users with a great shopping experience. By linking the digital avatar IPs of brands into the Cyber Gala, we bring brand new marketing solutions to brands, helping brands gain greater exposure and boost business growth.

Technical accumulation supports the image, voice and movement expression of digital avatars, which is the underlying foundation for JD to create a brand new paradigm of AI galas. In the field of digital avatar live streaming, JD has already deployed digital avatar live stream rooms that replicate real human anchors: brand IPs can transform into virtual images to interact and sell goods, founders and CEOs can also appear in the live stream room through digital avatars. Digital avatars not only fill in live broadcast schedules, but also become a new carrier for brands to convey their ideas.

Data shows that from the start of this year's JD 11.11 to October 30, JD's digital avatar JoyAvatar has served more than 100,000 merchants in total, generated sales of over 1.3 billion yuan in the first half of the 11.11 event, and helped merchants save costs of more than 100 million yuan.

With rich AI application scenarios, solid AI application accumulation and complete AI marketing solutions, JD opens up a new path for brands to move from content awareness to product transactions through innovative content paradigms such as Cyber Gala and digital avatar live streaming. Now, JD's Cyber Gala has been held for many consecutive times with a very mature model, and this model is being imitated by more other platforms, but JD as the pioneer has always been at the forefront of exploration.

When the JD 11.11 Cyber Gala came to an end, the digital avatars Daji and Tuniang found their way back home. The grand ceremony in the painting ended, but products and services still need to reach real families. Technology brings imagination to the screen, and the