Computing Power as the Engine of Digitalization and Intelligent Manufacturing – Insights from Alibaba Cloud Conference

During the opening of the Alibaba Cloud Conference, CTO Zhang Jianfeng gave a deep interpretation of Alibaba’s "new" strategies—new retail, new manufacturing, and new technology—emphasizing that the rise in computing capability will accelerate the world’s move toward intelligence.

He argued that digitalization will expand along two dimensions: continuous clustering of data through technologies such as computer vision (e.g., Alipay face‑recognition, Taobao’s visual search) and the exploration of new observation angles via VR/AR, which together unleash unprecedented imagination.

Zhang illustrated a future where every physical object—from electric meters to CNC machines—becomes digitized, networked, and perceptive, transforming city management and personal life. He cited the recently unveiled Hangzhou City Data Brain as a concrete example of AI‑driven social governance.

Using a golf club as a metaphor, he described three stages: intelligent manufacturing, intelligent products, and intelligent services. An AI‑powered "E‑commerce Brain" could soon customize a golf club to a player’s physique and habits, while the usage data collected by the smart club would feed back to factories for continuous improvement and enable coaches to deliver personalized training.

The speaker highlighted that the explosion of computing power, combined with the breakdown of offline data silos, will support complex, large‑scale systems—an essential focus of Alibaba’s 30‑year technology roadmap.

He then recapped the broader conference themes, noting that the shift from 2‑D to 3‑D interaction (VR/AR), the migration from keyboard to screen to voice, and the emergence of the cloud have all paved the way for a more natural human‑machine interface.

Digitalization, according to Zhang, proceeds in two steps: first, massive data collection (e.g., millions of cameras, IoT sensors) and second, intelligent processing of that data. He warned that handling the sheer volume of data requires advanced cloud computing and AI techniques.

He provided concrete IoT scenarios: smart meters and water meters transmitting real‑time usage to the cloud, enabling precise load forecasting and energy savings; intelligent logistics that links customized orders directly to production lines, creating a seamless loop from consumer demand to manufacturing to delivery.

Zhang stressed that the convergence of new retail, new manufacturing, and new technology is the foundation of "smart manufacturing"—the Chinese version of Industry 4.0—where personalized, data‑driven production replaces mass‑production paradigms.

Finally, he discussed the importance of big data and real‑time analytics, arguing that the combination of massive data, deep learning, and cloud infrastructure will transform industries ranging from city management to healthcare, making data‑driven, continuous monitoring the new norm.