DingTalk's Chen Hang delivers the first AI answer sheet

Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Alibaba is betting on the enterprise-level AI battlefield, with DingTalk as its core focus, undergoing a "smart" leap.

On July 8, DingTalk launched its new AI spreadsheet. In DingTalk's AI spreadsheet, every sheet, every column, and every cell serves as an entry point for AI, which can not only analyze and gain insights into the meaning behind the data in real-time but also quickly build business processes.

The AI spreadsheet also introduced the "Spreadsheet as Document" feature, integrating documents into data tables for the first time, where each row in the table is an independent document, transforming the entire multidimensional table into a powerful business knowledge base, allowing all fragmented and unstructured information to be clearly presented and easily retrieved.

The launch of DingTalk's AI spreadsheet is far from a simple tool upgrade; it represents a key step in the implementation of Alibaba's AI to B strategy and marks a substantial move towards DingTalk's transformation into an "intelligent entity."

In March of this year, former key figure Chen Hang returned as CEO, shifting DingTalk's strategic focus towards optimizing user experience and creating AI-native productivity tools in collaboration with users. It is reported that after Chen Hang's return, he emphasized two things: first, optimizing product experience, and second, returning to the front line to listen to user needs.

The AI spreadsheet is the first product delivered by Chen Hang.

In the AI era, business data is the core asset of enterprises, and spreadsheets, as the most familiar productivity tool for businesses, can efficiently carry, present, and process massive amounts of information. The addition of AI allows enterprises to build their intelligent business systems with a single spreadsheet, truly breaking down information silos.

The "intelligence" of DingTalk's AI spreadsheet is first reflected in content generation. The AI spreadsheet can not only extract, classify, understand, and match information but also generate multimodal content such as text, images, audio, and video according to requirements. Additionally, users only need to describe their needs in natural language, and the AI will automatically generate complex calculation formulas.

Moreover, the AI spreadsheet can create automated processes: users set "trigger conditions" and "execution actions," and once there is a change in data, the AI will respond immediately. For example, content changes can automatically notify designated individuals, or create to-do reminders before deadlines, addressing pain points in enterprise process efficiency and providing support for "managing the company with a single spreadsheet."

Currently, DingTalk's AI spreadsheet has become an important tool for many enterprises to implement AI applications, with application scenarios including e-commerce operations, brand promotions, airport management, and more.

Taking e-commerce operations as an example, for e-commerce brands, cross-platform and multi-store review analysis is crucial. In the past, manual compilation of Excel took time and effort, resulting in outcomes after three days. After introducing DingTalk's AI spreadsheet, RPA tools automatically scrape review data from various platforms daily, updating it in real-time in the spreadsheet, where the AI field templates instantly complete the analysis of massive consumer reviews, automatically categorizing positive, negative, and neutral reviews, accomplishing in 10 minutes what previously took three days.

Furthermore, DSR (Seller Service Rating System) data for multiple stores is also managed uniformly in the spreadsheet. After the scoring data is automatically collected and updated, operators can see the performance of all stores at a glance through a visual dashboard Once a surge in negative reviews for a certain product is detected, immediately trigger warehouse quality inspection or remove it from shelves to prevent potential issues.

The implementation of AI has become the main theme of current AI development; however, this is just the beginning, and many challenges remain. Unlike AI to C products that benefit from traffic effects, B-end products are often based on value logic and need to be considered from the perspective of practicality and efficiency.

This characteristic is particularly evident in the collaborative office sector where DingTalk operates, as ByteDance's Feishu and Tencent's enterprise services are building barriers through product strength and rapid AI application follow-up. According to insiders at DingTalk, it is necessary to think about the ultimate form of AI to B from the underlying product architecture, which is not something that can be accomplished in the short term.

In the wave of AI, although DingTalk holds the advantage and strategic determination, whether it can develop AI forms into a "flagship product" for the enterprise market and leverage this to drive the entire ecosystem still needs to withstand rigorous testing in practice.

DingTalk's ten years of accumulation and Chen Hang's second entry are ushering in an unprecedented opportunity window in the AI era, and a deep competition surrounding enterprise intelligent productivity has already begun.

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