BEIJING, April 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from CRI Online:

The Main Forum on the Digital Intelligence Future at the 2025 World Internet Conference (WIC) Asia-Pacific Summit was held in Hong Kong on April 14.

Francis Gurry, vice-chair of the WIC; Paul Chan Mo-po, financial secretary of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR); and Sun Weimin, chief engineer of the Cyberspace Administration of China, attended the forum and delivered speeches. 

Distinguished guests included Zhao Houlin, former secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union; Sun Dong, secretary for innovation, technology and industry, the government of the Hong Kong Speical Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China; Nahima Janett Díaz Flores, general director of the Nicaraguan Institute of Telecommunications and Postal Services; Hun Kim, acting vice-president, investment solutions and director general, AIIB; Veni Markovski, vice-president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers; Zhang Donggang, chair of the University Council, Renmin University of China; Wu Jianping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at Tsinghua University; Hans Dekkers, general manager of IBM Asia Pacific; Chen Feng, CEO of Arm China; and Zhu Hao, co-founder and CTO of Manycore Tech.

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SOURCE CRIOnline

BEIJING, April 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from chinadaily.com.cn：

The central government has pledged full support for Hong Kong’s deeper integration into the global digital landscape, vowing to help the city seize emerging opportunities in the booming digital economy.

Officials and experts made the remarks at the World Internet Conference on Monday. For the first time, the annual event launched its Asia-Pacific summit outside the Chinese mainland, placing artificial intelligence and digital technologies at center stage.

Wang Yong, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said digital integration is now a key force driving productivity reform and sustainable regional development.

He outlined China’s stance on digital governance, stating, “China promotes the joint building of a fair and just cyberspace and governance system with various countries. We advocate respect for each country’s network sovereignty and management models, while rejecting zero-sum games and technological bullying.”

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu described the summit as “a testament to Hong Kong’s rising role as an international innovation and technology hub”, and said it also reflects “our deep integration with our country’s national development”.

Lee emphasized the importance of international cooperation “especially during these challenging times to geopolitics and trade relations”, reaffirming that “Hong Kong champions free trade and multilateralism.”

“Hong Kong welcomes all business interests from those who are keen to pursue developments with us in this global city,” he said.

Zhuang Rongwen, head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said breakthroughs in new technologies such as AI are having far-reaching impacts on economic growth, social progress and the global political and economic landscape.

“Chinese research institutions and technology companies continue to introduce innovative achievements such as large language models, bringing strong momentum to the development of China, the Asia-Pacific region and the world,” he said. “This also provides opportunities for building a community with a shared future in cyberspace.”

Zheng Yanxiong, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, called Hong Kong a “pioneer region in internet development” with long-standing strengths in finance, shipping and trade, and emerging advantages in AI research, innovation and talent.

He cited Hong Kong’s institutional innovation, bilingual capabilities, cultural openness and international connectivity as unique strengths, and urged the city to take a leading role in Asia-Pacific digital integration.

“We must accelerate the construction of the Northern Metropolis, relying on Hong Kong Science Park and Cyberport, and join forces with major cooperation platforms such as the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, the Lok Ma Chau Loop, and Guangzhou’s Nansha District,” Zheng said.

He said such efforts would attract enterprises in the digital integration field and form industrial clusters spanning artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and blockchain.

Zheng also emphasized leveraging the “one country, two systems” framework to build cross-border data flow mechanisms aligned with international rules, promoting secure and orderly data circulation and resource sharing.

Nearly 1,000 delegates attended the two-day event, representing government agencies, businesses, international organizations and academia from about 30 countries and regions.

Zhang Donggang, Party secretary of the Renmin University of China, underlined the importance of talent development in the digital sector.

“The high-quality development of digital finance depends on a cohort of high-caliber, versatile professionals who understand both finance and technology,” he said.

“Only with a large number of outstanding financial talents who possess vision, responsibility and passion can we truly advance digital inclusive financial innovation and achieve sustainable development with inclusive coverage.”

On the sidelines of the conference, John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA Ltd, noted that on a global scale, artificial intelligence is emerging as a powerful force with the potential to transform businesses and society in unprecedented ways.

Over the next 10-20 years, McKinsey, a global management consulting firm, estimates that AI could bring up to $680 billion in benefits to the telecommunications industry, he said. Hoffman said the company is at the forefront of adopting AI and hopes to drive more value by empowering consumers and businesses through artificial intelligence.

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SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

Powered by a multi-agent system to offer precise, real-time trip planning

HANGZHOU, China, April 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Fliggy, a leading online travel services platform and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988), today unveiled “AskMe”, an AI travel assistant powered by multiple intelligent agents. Designed to emulate the problem-solving and task-execution capabilities of professional travel consultants, AskMe leverages Fliggy’s proprietary data, including flights, hotels, attractions, and curated experiences, to generate actionable and personalized travel itineraries.

Integrated with Alibaba’s Qwen AI models, AskMe employs a multi-agent collaboration system to accurately identify and process complex travel requests. Functioning as a 24/7 AI-powered travel consultant, it autonomously breaks down tasks, plans workflows, and deploys specialized sub-agents to deliver real-time, bookable itineraries.

Miranda Liu, Head of AI Product at Fliggy, said: “Travel is inherently personal, yet planning often involves overwhelming choices across flights, hotels, tickets, ground transportation, and activities, leading to decision fatigue. While bespoke travel services remain costly, Fliggy has amassed a vast amount of data on products, destinations, experiences and user reviews. This data, coupled with our proprietary expertise in supply chains and services, is essential for training AI. By applying the strengths of AI, we’re turning what was previously perceived as a luxury service into something every traveler can experience.”

One assistant, multiple experts

Users simply input their requests and AskMe instantly analyzes their needs and activates specialized AI experts accordingly. These experts scour Fliggy’s live pricing engine for flights, hotels, routes, and attractions, then compile and cost-optimize a coherent plan, including round-trip tickets, daily hotel stays, sightseeing routes, and dining recommendations, with direct booking links.

AskMe also allows real-time edits. Its budget-adjustment feature lets users tweak spending preferences with one click, triggering an instant regeneration of the itinerary.

Multimodal interaction and shareable outputs

Aside from text input, AskMe also supports voice commands (including different dialects) and delivers visually rich itineraries complete with images, product information, and interactive maps instead of returning just plain text. Users can even generate hand-drawn travel guides for social media sharing.

High-quality travel data as key differentiator

A key differentiator of AskMe lies in its superior data quality. The AI assistant is trained using Fliggy’s proprietary, high-quality travel scenario datasets and integrated with the platform’s real-time pricing engine, which includes live flight and hotel prices, inventory status, travel routes, attractions, and a full range of other travel services. This data ecosystem ensures users receive the most accurate and up-to-date travel information alongside fully bookable options.

In evaluations across five critical dimensions—accuracy, coherence, richness, utility, and customization—AskMe has demonstrated exceptional performance, particularly in the accuracy and coherence metrics. Fliggy is developing additional features to AskMe for future release.

“Our team meticulously studied human travel consultants’ workflows, embedding their expertise into AskMe’s analysis, execution, and decision-making nodes. We’ll continue to refine its industry knowledge for deeper, more empathetic customization while making interactions even smarter. Ultimately, we aim to provide our users with an AI that offers a human touch—one that helps them effortlessly craft their perfect trip,” added Liu.

AskMe is currently available to Fliggy F5 members and above, with access granted via invite codes from existing users.

About Fliggy

Fliggy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988 (HKD Counter) and 89988 (RMB Counter)), and is one of the leading online travel platforms in China. Fliggy places a strong emphasis on innovation in its products and services, catering to the increasingly personalized and diversified needs of consumers in both China and overseas markets.

Leveraging Fliggy’s advantage as part of the Alibaba ecosystem, merchants can benefit from the vast user base within the Group. Fliggy also collaborates with partners through a full-service management format, helping more merchants, especially small and medium-sized ones, easily and efficiently share opportunities enabled by digitalization.

Fliggy’s long-term strategy is to promote the digital transformation of the tourism industry, using an open platform and mechanisms to help the industry make better use of digital business infrastructure for their operations.

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SOURCE fliggy