Alibaba is increasing spending on generative AI at Lazada, its e-commerce platform across Southeast Asia, as it looks to reclaim market share in a highly competitive market. Alibaba has assigned a value of around $2 billion to its investment over the past two years into the firm, which is being squeezed by other massive machines such as Shopee and, more recently, TikTok Shop.

Whereas Lazada is targeting the older generation, Shopee and TikTok have taken hold of the younger crowd and have managed to take 45% and 20% shares, respectively. In a bid to counter this, Lazada uses AI-led solutions to enrich their user experience and offer them tailored suggestions, as well as AI agents who can better support their customers post-sale.

Besides, these AI tools will help sellers upkeep niche content, predict demand, and optimize logistics. Innovations of this sort would streamline operations but also help Lazada to attract a wider variety of users within the increasingly complex Southeast Asian e-commerce landscape.