Singles Day is a month-long shopping festival in China, and AI was everywhere.
Big e-commerce names like Alibaba and JD.com rolled out smart features (think chatbots and virtual try-ons) to make shopping smoother.
On Douyin, AI drove roughly 5% of purchases through chatbot links in October, with supplements getting a special boost.
JD.com's Dongdong helped nearly 80 million users
JD.com's AI assistant Dongdong helped out nearly 80 million users during this year's Singles Day festival, while Alibaba's platforms saw over 100 million yuan in sales from AI toys alone.
There was even a more than 700% jump in AI token sales between October 15 and November 5 compared with the period from September 15 to October 5.
While some brands thrived thanks to these tools, others found it harder to get noticed, showing that while AI is shaking things up fast, not everyone benefits equally.
Sales for Singles Day climbed 2.4% between October 7 and October 31, highlighting just how much tech is shaping what (and how) people buy.