The Washington Inquirer EditorUsers of Alibaba Group’s workplace communication platform Dingtalk can now turn to AI agents from third-party providers for help with a wide range of tasks, the company announced this week.
DingTalk has launched a marketplace of over 200 AI-powered agents specializing in productivity tools, industry-specific services and enterprise-facing features.
The platform also upgraded its self-developed AI agent, DingTalk AI Assistant, to ingest information from a wider range of sources, including video and images.
“We believe AI agents are poised to become the cornerstone of future applications. Our vision is for DingTalk’s AI Agent Store to emerge as a leading hub for the growth and exchange of AI agents,” said Ye Jun, President of DingTalk.
Businesses worldwide are increasingly relying on AI agents, a form of software program, to boost productivity.
The vast majority (96%) of C-suite executives surveyed by Accenture last year stated they believe AI agent ecosystems will present a significant opportunity for their organizations in the coming three years.
DingTalk, which counted over 700 million people as users last year, is keeping pace.
The platform tapped generative AI technology for the first time in April 2023, when it joined forces with Alibaba Cloud’s large language model Qwen to launch DingTalk AI Assistant.
More than 2.2 million corporations have used Dingtalk’s AI capabilities in less than a year, including some 1.7 million monthly active enterprises.
AI In Hand
The latest development makes DingTalk a powerful ally for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses and individual developers, who can create and share AI agents on the platform.
These software programs respond to natural language prompts like traditional chatbots, but their services extend much further. They can accomplish tasks inside and outside the DingTalk platform, from generating business analysis insights to travel planning.
“We expect to see the emergence of a vibrant commercial marketplace and a flourishing ecosystem based on AI agents,” said Ye.
The 200-plus agents available on DingTalk’s marketplace feature industry-specific knowledge and cross-application integration.
To ensure a high quality of service, AI agents developed by a third party must apply for approval to list their creations on DingTalk.
Multimodal Advantage
DingTalk further enhanced its AI Assistant to be multimodal, meaning it can process information in a variety of formats.
Dingtalk AI Assistant can process up to 500 pages of text at a time, and users can ask for summaries to make work and learning more efficient.
Powered by Qwen-VL, Alibaba Cloud’s large vision language model, Dingtalk AI agent can also comprehend images and extract data from photos, pictures, videos and more.
Its ability to understand visual information allows DingTalk AI Assistant to generate subtitles, translate images, summarize videos and even search for additional data based on a graphic prompt.
For instance, a curious visitor to Hangzhou’s West Lake could upload a photo of one of the temples dotting its shore. The user would quickly receive a summary of the site’s history.
