JD.com Demonstrates the Many Industrial Applications of AI Technology

JD.com Demonstrates the Many Industrial Applications of AI Technology

Daniel Hall 14/10/2022
JD.com Demonstrates the Many Industrial Applications of AI Technology

From mechanical technologies such as steam power and railroads, to mass production technologies like electrical power, to information technologies such as the internet and the smartphone, industrial revolutions and the advancements that come with them reshape the world as we know it.

Today, technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) – self-learning software algorithms that execute tasks otherwise typically performed by humans – is proving to be a driving force for innovation, with the potential to increase human prosperity and contribute to a more productive world.

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According to Cao Peng, senior vice president of the ecommerce and technology company JD.com and chairman of its Technology Committee, it is only by integrating AI throughout the entire process of the industrial change in a way that is large-scale and systematic that a company will remain industrially competitive in the future. Speaking at the 2022 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, he called to attention JD Cloud’s Industrial AI capabilities and their ability to accelerate digital transformation of both upstream and downstream industries. 

Although JD.com has operated as one of the largest ecommerce companies in the world – often comparatively called “the Amazon of China” – its focus on developing in-house capabilities over employing third parties has seen it gain a significant competitive edge over its nearly two decades in business, and most recently it has been able to begin offering its highly developed business solutions to others. The company’s innovations in AI have helped to create its digitally intelligent supply chain, applicable across retail, logistics, services and more. JD.com has extensively applied AI to achieve an overall automation upgrade, cost reduction, efficiency, and experience optimization for its customers. 

The Industrial Metaverse

At the 2022 JD Discovery Global Conference held this past June, JD Cloud proposed the concept of the industrial metaverse, and highlighted three areas of capability building in the early stages of its development: “Digital Twin” involves enabling digital representation of a physical world entity or system; “Digital Thread” is the integration of AI technologies in the virtual world to better solve problems in the real world; and “Born Digital” which sees deep learning, AI-generated content and other technologies applied to achieve seamless integration between the two worlds, eventually propelling hardware upgrading such as more flexible manufacturing units and robotic modules. 

Different industries will have the ability to adopt AI at different phases depending on where they are in their development. One example can be found in JD’s supply chain, which used a digital twin system to simulate scenarios and was able to increase its decision-making efficiency by over 95 percent as a result. While the steel industry may be in the phase that utilizing digital twin strategies will best benefit it, further up the chain once that steel has been manufactured and is ready to be made into cars, the vehicle manufacturing industry may be able to implement born digital techniques such as AI robots for its factories. 

AI Integration Throughout JD.com

As China’s largest retailer both on and offline, JD Retail receives millions of inquiries each day regarding its products. Utilizing AI, JD.com developed a customer service chatbot that has the ability to address the high volume of requests without sacrificing customer experience. Utilizing deep learning and transfer learning technologies to detect subtleties in speech that indicate human emotions in real-time, the chatbot is able to respond appropriately to facilitate a more natural and efficient interaction. In 2019 the chatbot was able to field over 32 million inquiries during the company’s annual 618 grand promotion, 90 percent of which were solved independent of actual human interaction. The service has since been opened up to over 15,000 merchants, allowing them to benefit from the advantages and regain productivity through delegating customer service to AI. 

2020 saw further developments applied to the AI chatbot, updating it to go beyond answering questions and predict what the customer intends to ask. Through an AI-powered “prediction engine,” the chatbot is now able to calculate what a customer may ask based on their previous history. For example, if a customer has just viewed their order status on the website, the chatbot may predict that they would like to know when their package will be delivered. If they recently purchased a large appliance, installation services may be required. This update allows the chatbot to suggest inquiries before the customer begins to ask. 

AI within JD

In JD Retail, AI capabilities are applied throughout the supply chain, allowing the company to make decisions intelligently and efficiently operate its over 10 million SKUs as economic uncertainty affects supply and demand. The company’s procurement automation rate has reached 85 percent and the inventory turnover has been reduced to roughly 30 days, aiding the company in creating one of the most efficient supply chains in the world. 

JD Logistics, JD.com’s logistical company that has been listed as its own entity on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has over 400 autonomous delivery vehicles deployed in more than 25 cities across China. The automated ground vehicle (AGV) system was developed entirely in-house like the rest of JD’s extensive logistical network, and works in-tandem with the company’s Asia No. 1 intelligent industrial parks. Collaborating with the employees of the parks, sorting efficiency has been improved three times over. 

Extending AI Capabilities to Others

JD has since provided their AI technology to other industries. The telecommunications company China Unicom worked with JD to build an AI-based precision marketing solution, and have utilized JD’s AI in their voice-based customer service hotline. Similarly, West China Second University Hospital has also benefited from JD’s AI-powered customer service. Through the hospital’s WeChat public account, patients are able to receive rapid and accurate responses to frequently asked questions, removing the burden from hospital workers. 

JD Health, the healthcare arm of JD, co-developed an AI-based prescription review and analysis system called PharmCOO. Taking data from Peking University Third Hospital’s extensive database of pharmaceutical information, JD created a knowledge graph and integrated it with their technology’s advanced natural language processing and deep learning technology. Through this system, doctors are able to receive automatic notifications when a prescribed medicine may have contraindications or may trigger an allergic reaction in the patient. The employment of AI in systems such as these can help relieve the burden of retaining vast amounts of information and improve efficiencies in the medical system.  

Another way JD has shown that the AI applications they have developed for their retail business has industrial applications was during the rollout of China’s new recycling requirements. Much of the instructions were initially met with confusion, and so JD utilized their AI technology to help consumers identify the difference between dry waste, wet waste, recyclables, and hazardous waste. Basing the program on JD.com’s SnapShop 24/7 shopping consultant which allows users to take photos of items they want to buy and then receive recommendations of where to buy the same or a related product on their e-commerce platform, users could simply photograph the item they wanted to recycle and would be instructed by the AI on how to do so properly. This solution was also made into an API by the company, opening the doors for other businesses to implement the technology into their businesses. 


By partnering with a wide number of industries and providing their expertise in smart technologies such as artificial intelligence, JD has been able to promote the development of the real economy in China and beyond. The industrial metaverse is the future the entire world should be working toward, and JD remains front and center for the advance.

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Daniel Hall

Business Expert

Daniel Hall is an experienced digital marketer, author and world traveller. He spends a lot of his free time flipping through books and learning about a plethora of topics.

 
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