Alibaba's Joe Tsai at Apsara Conference: AI Must Move from Imagination to Real-World Deployment

Joe Tsai, executive chairman of Alibaba Group, said at the 2026 Apsara Conference on September 22 that AI development should shift its focus from technological imagination to large-scale deployment in real-world scenarios. Speaking under the theme "Intelligence for Application", Tsai outlined Alibaba's strategic view on the AI industry.

Tsai noted that Alibaba Cloud was founded 17 years ago, and the Apsara Conference has grown from a developer gathering into an important platform for China's engagement with the global tech community. He acknowledged recent breakthroughs in large language models, embodied intelligence, and world models, but stressed that technology is only a starting point. The real value of AI lies in empowering various industries and improving productivity.

Tsai said Alibaba is committed to building a five-layer full-stack AI system covering chips, cloud infrastructure, large models, model services, and agent applications, with each layer working together to turn technology into practical industrial results. In the face of global market uncertainty, he called for open cooperation and pragmatic innovation, adding that technology will not create value automatically unless it is rooted in industries and combined with partners.