Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is deepening its artificial intelligence and digital transformation strategy by embedding AI across logistics, customer engagement, and supply chain operations while expanding into new sectors such as food delivery and international retail.
Credit: Facebook
During its Q4-2025 earnings call, JD.com CEO Sandy Xu highlighted how its AI-driven infrastructure and logistics automation are helping create a “proprietary intelligence” ecosystem designed to improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experience, and support diversified growth.
Peng Cao serves as the Technology Committee Chair and Chief Security Officer (CSO), responsible for digital infrastructure and information systems.
AI at the Core of JD’s Future Strategy
“We have integrated AI across our internal operations to deliver more intelligent user experiences and fully capitalize on its transformative potential. Supported by our strong operational capabilities and advancing AI technologies, we enter 2026 on a steady footing,” Sandy Xu said.
AI-Powered Marketing With Digital Humans
JD.com has significantly expanded the use of AI-driven digital humans to support merchants on its platform. By the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, more than 50,000 merchants were using JD’s AI-powered digital human livestreaming solution called JoyStreamer.
JoyStreamer allows brands and sellers to automate livestream commerce using AI-generated hosts capable of interacting with consumers, demonstrating products, and responding to questions in real time. The technology helps merchants reduce marketing costs while scaling online sales operations, particularly during major shopping festivals.
AI Customer Service Handles Billions of Queries
JD.com’s AI customer service system played a critical role during high-traffic events such as China’s annual online shopping festival, the Singles’ Day.
During the company’s 2025 11.11 Grand Promotion, JD’s AI-enabled service platform handled more than 4.2 billion customer inquiries across multiple business segments.
The system leverages multi-scenario and multi-modal AI capabilities to process text, voice, and image-based queries, enabling faster responses and improved customer experience during peak shopping periods.
50,000 AI Agents Transform Internal Operations
JD.com is also using AI internally to streamline enterprise operations. The company has deployed a wide range of AI agents integrated into its internal workflows to improve data analysis, decision-making, and operational efficiency.
By the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, JD had more than 50,000 AI agents operating across its internal systems. These agents assist employees by automating tasks, generating insights, and optimizing supply chain processes.
JoyInside Expands AI to Consumer Devices
To expand AI adoption beyond its platform, JD.com launched JoyInside, an AI agent designed for robots, toys, and smart devices.
JoyInside has already partnered with more than 40 hardware brands to introduce a range of AI-enabled products. The initiative aims to integrate JD’s AI capabilities directly into consumer electronics, creating new intelligent device experiences.
Demand for these products surged during major sales events. During the 2025 11.11 Grand Promotion, sales of JoyInside-integrated devices increased more than 20 times compared with the 618 Shopping Festival.
AI-powered supply chain becomes core competitive advantage
JD.com is rapidly scaling artificial intelligence across its operations through its proprietary large language model platform, JoyAI LLM.
The model currently supports more than 1,000 real-world applications across the company’s ecosystem, including customer service automation, procurement management, logistics planning, and marketing optimization. Token usage for the AI platform increased 100 times during 2025, reflecting the rapid adoption of AI tools across JD’s internal operations.
Another key innovation is the AI-powered shopping assistant Jingyan AI Shopping Assistant, which reached approximately 150 million annual active users in 2025. The AI agent is integrated into JD’s e-commerce platform to help customers discover products, compare prices, and receive personalized recommendations.
The system currently influences around 20 percent of the platform’s gross merchandise value, and JD expects the user base to double in 2026 as AI-driven commerce becomes more mainstream.
Autonomous logistics network expands globally
JD.com is also advancing its logistics automation strategy through a network of highly automated warehouses powered by robotics and AI.
The company has deployed more than 20 flagship automated logistics centers across China under its LangzuTech system, enabling faster sorting, inventory management, and delivery processing.
To support its international expansion, JD has also launched its first automated LangzuTech warehouse in the United Kingdom. These facilities are designed to enable same-day or next-day delivery while reducing operational costs.
AI-enabled logistics has become a central pillar of JD’s competitive advantage, allowing the company to manage complex supply chains involving categories such as electronics, fashion, and fresh food.
AI-driven advertising and marketplace growth
Artificial intelligence is also playing a key role in JD’s digital advertising and marketplace business.
AI-powered algorithms are being used to optimize traffic allocation, improve product discovery, and increase conversion rates for merchants on the platform. As a result, marketplace and marketing revenues grew 18.9 percent during the full year.
These AI-driven advertising tools allow brands to target customers more precisely, improving marketing efficiency while generating additional revenue streams for JD.
Expansion into food delivery and high-frequency retail
JD.com is expanding its ecosystem into new high-frequency consumer services, particularly food delivery.
The company reported that its food delivery business significantly reduced losses in Q4, with the loss scale declining about 20 percent compared with the previous quarter.
Beyond revenue generation, the food delivery service is strategically designed to increase customer engagement and shopping frequency across JD’s broader ecosystem. As a result, overall user shopping frequency increased by more than 40 percent during the year.
International retail expansion through Joybuy
JD.com is also accelerating its global e-commerce strategy through the launch of the Joybuy platform in Europe.
Scheduled to launch in March 2026, Joybuy will serve customers across several major European markets including the Germany, France, and the Netherlands.
The platform will be supported by JD’s logistics service JoyExpress, which aims to deliver same-day or next-day shipping through the company’s own logistics infrastructure.
This international push is intended to replicate JD’s technology-driven retail model outside China.
Customer growth and engagement accelerate
JD.com reported strong growth in its user base during 2025.
Annual active customers exceeded 700 million, while quarterly active users grew by approximately 30 percent year-over-year during the fourth quarter.
The company’s premium membership program, JD Plus, continued to expand at a double-digit growth rate, contributing to higher average revenue per user and stronger customer loyalty.
JD also continues to expand into lower-tier markets using its Jingxi platform, which focuses on value-driven, non-branded products targeted at consumers in smaller cities.
Financial performance remains stable
JD.com’s Q4 revenue reached $51.12 billion, representing a 6.76 percent increase compared with the previous year.
JD.com’s research and development expenses increased by 52 percent to RMB6.7 billion (US$1.0 billion) for the fourth quarter of 2025. Research and development expenses as a percentage of net revenues were 1.9 percent for Q4-2025, compared to 1.3 percent for Q4-2024, as the company continues to invest in technology capabilities and talents.
Data infrastructure and supply chain resilience
JD’s leadership emphasized that its proprietary supply chain remains the backbone of its long-term strategy.
According to CEO Sandy Xu, the company’s integrated logistics and technology platform enables it to manage diverse product categories more efficiently than competitors.
The rapid expansion of AI systems such as JoyAI also reflects JD’s growing investment in secure data infrastructure capable of managing data from hundreds of millions of users.
AI-driven ecosystem strategy
By embedding artificial intelligence across logistics, commerce, marketing, and customer engagement, JD.com is building a technology-first retail ecosystem.
With its AI-powered supply chain, autonomous logistics network, and expanding international footprint, the company is positioning itself to compete more aggressively in the global digital commerce landscape.
RAJANI BABURAJAN
