Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing unit of Chinese tech heavyweight Alibaba Group, is expanding its partnership with Yili Group, one of China's largest dairy producers. The two companies have teamed up to bolster digital transformation across the dairy industry through the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

As one of China's leading dairy brands, Yili was among the first companies to establish a fully digitalized supply chain. At its smart ranches, every cow boasts a "digital identity card", while every drop of milk is traceable via unique data "fingerprints."

In its factories, AI empowers automated production lines and enhances operational efficiency, while AI-powered consumer insight tools help the company better learn about consumer preferences and predict market trends.

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Alibaba Cloud has played a key role in boosting Yili's digital transformation via the provision of AI computing power and the Feitian operating system. Yili has integrated decision-making algorithms and generative AI models into its production and supply chain operations.

Yili has also partnered with Alibaba's large language model Tongyi Qianwen to develop an intelligent agent by integrating professional data from supply chains. After adopting a business intelligence or BI system powered by Tongyi Qianwen, users can simply ask questions in natural language, while the BI system can instantly retrieve data, generate visual reports and provide business insights to support decision-making.

Currently, the model covers approximately 70 percent of Yili's supply chain scenarios, including order fulfillment, inventory turnover and logistics, significantly improving query efficiency.

Faced with a new wave of AI development, Alibaba Cloud said it will support Yili to upgrade its intelligent computing infrastructure, and promote the application of AI and improve the performance of large models in the agriculture and dairy sectors.

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Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen models have also been deployed in manufacturing scenarios, while Alibaba Cloud has cooperated with automaker FAW Group, consumer electronics company TCL and equipment manufacturer Sany Heavy Industry to help them boost R&D and production efficiency.

Contact the writer at fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn