Alibaba.com’s CoCreate: The Future of Business, Straight Out of Vegas
Vegas is known for neon lights, roulette wheels, and questionable buffets. But when I landed there for Alibaba’s CoCreate event, I didn’t hit the jackpot on the strip, I hit on something else: a glimpse of the future of entrepreneurship.
Here’s the gossip from the desert.
The AI That Acts Like a Whole Team
The biggest “wow” moment came from Accio Agent, Alibaba’s new upgrade to its AI-powered sourcing platform.
Accio started life as a smart search engine trained on 1 billion product listings and 50 million supplier profiles, designed to help entrepreneurs find the right manufacturers. But Agent Mode? That’s a whole other level.
It doesn’t just help you search, it does the actual work.
Imagine you want to launch a reusable insulated travel mug:
You feed the idea into Accio.
Within minutes, it spits out a development plan with market insights, compliance rules for food-safe materials, and design suggestions.
Hit approve, and Accio Agent takes over: supplier vetting, bulk RFQs, cost comparisons.
You get back a production-ready roadmap, with inquiries already sent to vetted manufacturers.
Something that used to take weeks of emails and back-and-forth? Done before your coffee gets cold.
For the 40% of SMBs now run by solo entrepreneurs, this is game-changing. But it doesn’t stop there. Larger businesses are also under pressure; leaner teams, tighter margins, faster-moving and more informed consumers. Having a digital “team” that automates 70% of manual trade workflows isn’t just convenient, it’s necessary.
AI in e-commerce is already worth $7.68 billion in 2025, projected to skyrocket to $37.69 billion by 2032. Accio is Alibaba’s bet that the future of global trade will run on AI agents that don’t just suggest or research, but act on behalf of entrepreneurs.
The Rise of Women-Led and Women-Focused Ideas
Another thing I couldn’t ignore: the number of women. Nearly half the room was female (and anyone who’s ever been to a supply chain conference knows how unusual that is).
Alibaba’s numbers tell the story:
45.7% of submissions focused on women’s needs
44.6% were likely led by women founders (a directional stat, not formally tracked)
And these weren’t just “pink it and shrink it” products. There were pitches around women’s health, personal safety, and everyday life solutions, things that are massively needed but too often overlooked.
If you think women’s markets are niche, think again:
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour pulled in more than $1 billion, boosting local economies with every stop.
The global femtech market is projected to hit $103 billion by 2030.
Women drive 70–80% of household purchasing decisions worldwide.
Betting on women-led businesses isn’t a feel-good move; it’s just smart business.
Sustainability as a Starting Point
Sustainability wasn’t a checkbox—it was baked into the DNA of many pitches. 31% of submissions focused on eco-friendly solutions, with apparel (37.2%), cosmetics (18.5%), and consumer electronics (12.6%) leading the way.
While plenty of companies are still greenwashing, the founders pitching at CoCreate were designing with purpose: renewable materials, reduced-carbon footprints, sustainable production, all from day one.
And when sustainability intersects with pop culture, like influencer-backed eco products or social-purpose startups, the pull gets even stronger. Consumers don’t just want to buy something anymore, they want to believe in it.
Notes Worth Keeping
It wasn’t just the AI and pitches that stood out, the leadership advice was just as sharp. My top takeaways:
“Turbulence is daily life.” Supply chain (and entrepreneurship in general) is never smooth sailing. Things will go wrong. Fires will flare. The trick is building solutions that make the bumps smaller over time.
“No’s are free.” Both getting them and saying them. Ask for what you want. Say no to what doesn’t make sense. Boundaries build better businesses.
“Presentism is lazy leadership.” If you need employees in the same room to believe they’re productive, that says more about your leadership style (or lack thereof) than it does about their output.
Entrepreneurship and leadership go hand in hand, even for solopreneurs. Having some of the best minds in business share advice live was one of the most valuable parts of CoCreate.
Walking Out of Vegas
CoCreate wasn’t about what’s hot right now. It was about what’s already shifting under our feet. AI isn’t optional, women aren’t a niche, sustainability isn’t a checkbox, and leadership isn’t performative.
It’s a reality I saw in Vegas, and one we’ll all be working in sooner than we think.
