Tencent Smart Retail, the smart retail service under Tencent Cloud, highlighted how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the retail industry, sharing how retailers across Asia are leveraging AI, data and ecosystem capabilities to create new growth opportunities.

Speaking at the 2026 World Retail Lab Asia, Terry Li, Vertical General Manager of Tencent Smart Retail, shared how AI is moving to the front of the consumer journey, transforming consumers’ product discovery, decision making and brand engagement, and creating new opportunities for retailers to rethink how they engage customers and operate their businesses. He also hosted a roundtable discussion with Sinong Duan, Vice President of Strategy and Transformation of SML Group, exploring the growing role of AI in product development and retail operations across Asia.

“AI is reshaping how consumers discover, evaluate and interact with brands, while creating new opportunities for retailers to rethink growth, engagement and operations,” said Terry Li, Vertical General Manager, Tencent Smart Retail. “At Tencent Smart Retail, we believe the true value of AI lies not in the technology itself, but in how it is applied to real-world retail scenarios. By connecting customer insights, operational workflows and ecosystem capabilities, we are helping retailers scale the adoption of AI across their organizations.”

Accelerating retail transformation through scenario-driven AI innovation

As AI adoption accelerates globally, consumers are increasingly turning to AI-powered tools to discover products and make purchasing decisions. Brands need to rethink how they engage consumers and strengthen their visibility and relevance in an evolving retail landscape.

Tencent Smart Retail emphasized that the greatest value of AI comes from applying it to real-world business scenarios where customer insights, operational data and ecosystem capabilities can be transformed into tangible business outcomes. Supporting this vision is Tencent’s growing portfolio of AI capabilities spanning productivity, data intelligence, creative design and software development. Solutions including WorkBuddy, Tencent’s AI productivity agent; CodeBuddy, an AI coding assistant; DataBuddy, an AI-native data workspace; Miora, an AI-native creative and design platform; and Ardot, an AI-powered design-to-code platform are helping enterprises improve workforce productivity, drive innovation, activate organizational knowledge and streamline business processes across functions.

A key differentiator for Tencent Smart Retail is its ability to connect cloud, AI, customer engagement and ecosystem capabilities through platforms such as Weixin/WeChat, WeCom and Mini Programs. By connecting employees, customers and business operations across a unified ecosystem, retailers can create more seamless experiences while improving productivity and operational agility.

Tencent Smart Retail is also seeing growing adoption of AI across intelligent manufacturing, AI-powered clienteling, generative creativity and enterprise productivity, enabling retailers to integrate data, systems and workflows.

Empowering retail growth across markets and sectors

With experience supporting more than 600 retailers across over 30 retail segments, Tencent Smart Retail works with a diverse ecosystem of local enterprises, multinational brands operating in China and Chinese companies expanding globally. Across the retail industry, organizations including Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, Decathlon China, Estée Lauder Group, POP MART and SML Group are leveraging Tencent Cloud’s AI, data and ecosystem capabilities to drive innovation.

For example, SML Group, a global solutions provider serving approximately 600 brands across retail identification, RFID and digital product solutions, is embedding AI across multiple business functions, including market intelligence, customer engagement, product development and resource management. By integrating expert knowledge into AI-powered workflows, the company has improved operational efficiency, shortened response times and enhanced organizational knowledge sharing at scale.

Sinong Duan, Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at SML Group, said: “Customer engagement is one of the areas where we see significant potential for AI. It can help businesses better understand customer needs and improve product recommendations, creating new opportunities to enhance both conversion and service experiences. We have also had the opportunity to work with Tencent WorkBuddy, and its flexibility, user experience and support capabilities have enabled our teams to explore AI adoption more effectively.”

Another example is Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, which is applying across areas including jewelry design, customer operations and store operations to enhance employee productivity, strengthen customer engagement and improve service consistency. Serving nearly 60 million members globally, with member purchases accounting for more than 95% of total consumption, the company is also leveraging a global customer data platform and unified customer insights capabilities to better understand consumer preferences across markets and support its customer-centric digital transformation journey.

Looking ahead, Tencent Smart Retail expects AI to become increasingly embedded across the retail value chain, from product innovation and merchandising to customer engagement and operations. By combining cloud, AI, data and ecosystem capabilities with deep industry expertise, Tencent Smart Retail will continue to work alongside retailers and partners to accelerate intelligent transformation, foster innovation and unlock new growth opportunities across Asia’s retail industry.