Alibaba brings chat-style shopping to Taobao and Qwen amid AI gateway push

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding is preparing an overhaul of how local consumers shop online, betting that the next trend will feel more like chatting with an artificial intelligence chatbot rather than typing keywords into a search bar. Users of the company’s flagship AI assistant Qwen – one of the most popular in China – would soon be able to use natural language to “talk” with the chatbot app to find and buy items listed on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall shopping platforms,...