---
title: "JD.com Establishes 'Chameleon Business Unit'! New Move in AI Commercialization Layout"
description: "On January 8, according to the Science and Technology Board Daily, JD.com established the 'Chameleon Business Unit' to fully undertake the development and commercialization of core AI products such as JoyAI App, JoyInside, and digital humans. Previously, JD.com's self-developed AI plush toys launched at the end of 2025 sold out immediately upon initial release and have undergone multiple restocks. JD.com stated that the second batch of AI toys is planned to fully launch in mid-January, covering users of all ages. Within just one month, JD.com has made continuous moves in the AI track, with its standalone app 'JD AI Shopping' also starting internal testing in late December 2025."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2026-01-09"
categories: "Dealer Operations"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-3hMWECTMi5PwFYcTxzUUA"
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---

# JD.com Establishes 'Chameleon Business Unit'! New Move in AI Commercialization Layout

> On January 8, according to the Science and Technology Board Daily, JD.com established the 'Chameleon Business Unit' to fully undertake the development and commercialization of core AI products such as JoyAI App, JoyInside, and digital humans. Previously, JD.com's self-developed AI plush toys launched at the end of 2025 sold out immediately upon initial release and have undergone multiple restocks. JD.com stated that the second batch of AI toys is planned to fully launch in mid-January, covering users of all ages. Within just one month, JD.com has made continuous moves in the AI track, with its standalone app 'JD AI Shopping' also starting internal testing in late December 2025.

On January 8, according to the Science and Technology Board Daily, JD.com established the 'Chameleon Business Unit' to fully undertake the development and commercialization of core AI products such as JoyAI App, JoyInside, and digital humans.
Previously, JD.com's self-developed AI plush toys launched at the end of 2025 sold out immediately upon initial release and have undergone multiple restocks. JD.com stated that the second batch of AI toys is planned to fully launch in mid-January, covering users of all ages.
Within just one month, JD.com has made continuous moves in the AI track, with its standalone app 'JD AI Shopping' also starting internal testing in late December 2025. The author believes these actions are not only a necessary choice for JD.com to respond to competition in merchant services within the internet industry but also conceal a deeper layout to build an ecosystem moat of 'digital services + e-commerce'.
**'AI Commercialization' Upgraded Internally at JD.com**
External attention to the 'Chameleon Business Unit' mainly stems from the fact that it places several of JD.com's core AI products under the same 'undertaking umbrella'.
Specifically, during the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), JD.com officially announced the upgrade of its large model brand to JoyAI, along with technical progress in large models and the JoyAI application panorama, and also released the new embodied intelligence brand JoyInside.
According to disclosures, the JoyAI large model family covers full-size models from 3B to 750B, adaptable to response speed and performance requirements in different scenarios, while covering multimodal capabilities such as language, speech, image, video, and digital humans. JD.com stated that through core technologies like dynamic layered distillation and cross-domain data governance, the JoyAI large model improves inference efficiency by an average of 30% and reduces training costs by 70%, significantly enhancing the model's adaptability in industrial scenarios.
In the embodied intelligence track, JoyInside has achieved technical integration with over 40 leading robot and AI toy brands, covering diverse carriers such as humanoid robots, quadruped robots, children's toys, and AI trendy toys, embedding high-EQ interactive 'brains' into smart terminals, increasing average dialogue turns for hardware devices by over 120%.
The digital human business has also become a benchmark scenario for JD.com's AI commercialization. According to official JD.com data, as of December 2025, over 45,000 brands have integrated its digital human services, with digital human live streaming costs only 1/10 of human live streaming, and average conversion rates increased by about 30%. During the 2025 'Double 11' period, the number of merchants using digital human live streaming increased nearly 6 times year-on-year, cumulatively driving gross merchandise volume (GMV) of tens of billions of yuan throughout the year.
The establishment of this business unit also clarifies JD.com's goal to the outside world: to coordinate R&D and commercialization, consolidating previously scattered products and resources.
In an interview with a reporter from the Science and Technology Board Daily, Li Chengdong, founder of Haitun Society, gave a similar judgment: JD.com's establishment of the Chameleon Business Unit is core to advancing two major transformations in its AI strategy: first, organizational-level resource integration, coordinating previously scattered AI business lines to form group-level synergy; second, business-level commercial closed-loop construction, leveraging its own e-commerce scenarios and sales capabilities to push AI technology from R&D to practical application.
In Li Chengdong's view, JD.com's moat lies in its deep supply chain capabilities and upstream bargaining power. As a leading sales channel in consumer electronics and 3C home appliances, this advantage provides a solid foundation for its AI implementation.
However, he also pointed out that JD.com's AI development still has shortcomings: on one hand, long-term investment in the large model field is insufficient, with a noticeable gap compared to Alibaba and ByteDance; on the other hand, its AI systems are only for domestic business, with no overseas layout, lacking a global market.
**JD.com's AI Commercialization Strategy: More Than Just a Battle for B-Side Merchant Services**
In late December 2025, 'JD AI Shopping' started internal testing, another card JD.com has shown to the C-end. It is understood that this app integrates ecosystem resources such as JD Retail, JD Takeout, 7Fresh, and JD Health, deeply binding AI interaction with instant delivery and local life services, forming a 'e-commerce + life services' super shopping entrance.
The author downloaded the 'JD AI Shopping' app for testing and found that the significance of such products lies not only in achieving 'one-sentence shopping' but in attempting to change the traditional e-commerce shopping path: from users having a clear need and then searching, to users expressing intent, with AI breaking down the need, providing solutions, and then landing the solution back onto products and services.
In testing, entering 'breakfast at 8 am tomorrow' quickly matches nearby merchants' combo meals, along with delivery time and signature dish prompts; when wanting to choose shampoo, AI recommends various functional categories based on current popular consumption preferences, and even generates multi-dimensional comparative analysis, saving the hassle of repeatedly switching pages.
Of course, products in the internal testing phase still have certain limitations. As some netizens have reported: complex commands may be recognized inaccurately, cross-store AI try-on is limited, and scheduled delivery functions are less flexible than traditional platforms. But it is undeniable that JD.com is continuously attempting to reshape consumers' shopping patterns and experiences through this light-interaction, experience-focused approach.
**Why Does JD.com, Known for Logistics and Supply Chain, Insist on Building Its Own AI?**
Zooming out, JD.com's recent series of actions is not a sudden shift but an inevitable choice under industry trends.
Over the past two years, the heat of AI hardware has gradually pushed various brands and platforms to the forefront. For example, Huawei launched the emotional companion AI toy 'Smart Hanhan' priced at 399 yuan, which sold out quickly multiple times after launch; UBTech launched 'Youzai' at 519 yuan; Honor collaborated with Alpha Group to develop AI trendy toys... Such reports are already common.
ByteDance is the same. Last December, the technical preview version of Doubao Mobile Assistant was released, and the engineering prototype co-developed with ZTE caused industry shock due to obtaining 'system-level control'. Once AI moves from 'answering questions' to 'operating on your behalf', entrance competition becomes more direct—whoever masters operating system-level collaboration capabilities is closer to the next-generation interaction interface.
For this reason, for internet platforms, 'building tools for the B-side and entrances for the C-side' is no longer a choice exclusive to JD.com. Around directions such as intelligent shopping guidance, local life recommendations, and merchant-side AI services, platforms like Meituan and Alibaba are also advancing related products and capabilities. Industry competition is expanding from traditional supply chain and traffic competition to a contest of 'technology implementation and experience delivery'.
From JD.com's perspective, whether the AI strategy can become a second growth curve beyond logistics and supply chain remains to be seen, but the battle over entrances and experiences has already begun ahead of time.
**[Moving Toward the C-End] The 11th China FMCG Conference**
**Time: March 16-18, 2026**
**Location: Chengdu, China**


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: New Distribution
- Published: 2026-01-09
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/jd-com-establishes-chameleon-business-unit-new-move-in-ai-commercializat-0e5f6230/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-3hMWECTMi5PwFYcTxzUUA

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