An exclusive Q&A with alibaba.com's Kuo Zhang

2026-03-29 · Source: The Rundown AI · Field: Business & Management — Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Operations & Process Management, Entrepreneurship & Start-ups · Depth: Intermediate, medium

Summary

Alibaba.com's President, Kuo Zhang, discusses the company's new agentic AI system, Accio Work, which deploys "digital employees" to automate complex business tasks 24/7. Accio Work utilizes Qwen-powered agent teams, customizable with specific skills and connectors, to handle multistep workflows across various functions. Zhang highlights a shift from AI assistants to operators, emphasizing the need for businesses to prioritize agentic AI's business value, establish transparency checkpoints, and redesign team operations. He foresees an "agent-to-agent" (A2A) future for B2B, where autonomous agents manage most tasks within human-defined parameters, with human oversight for critical decisions and accountability. The platform aims to level the playing field for small businesses against larger enterprises.

Key takeaway

For Directors of AI/ML or Entrepreneurs considering agentic AI, you should focus on defining clear business outcomes and establishing robust human oversight for critical decisions. Your role will evolve from managing individual tasks to configuring and monitoring digital workforces, ensuring accountability remains with your team. This approach allows even small operations to achieve capabilities previously requiring large teams, making domain expertise in setting AI standards a key competitive advantage.

Key insights

Agentic AI shifts businesses from managing tasks to defining outcomes, with human oversight for critical decisions.

Principles

• Prioritize agentic AI for business value, not just activity.
• Implement clear guardrails and checkpoints for AI operations.
• Human accountability remains for agent-driven actions.

Method

Accio Work assembles specialized Qwen-powered agent teams based on user-defined goals, allowing customization of agents, team combinations, and reusable skills, managed via an app for configuration and monitoring.

In practice

• Use agent teams for e-commerce launch, from market analysis to supplier negotiation.
• Configure agents to encapsulate specific domain expertise.
• Focus on setting success criteria and assessing AI outputs.

Topics

• Accio Work
• Agentic AI
• B2B Automation
• Digital Workforce
• Organizational Transformation

Best for: Director of AI/ML, Entrepreneur, Consultant

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by The Rundown AI.