Taobao's RecGPT: A New Era for Personalized Shopping

At the Hardcore Youth Tech Festival 4.0 on July 1, 2025, Taobao Group introduced RecGPT, its proprietary recommendation model with hundreds of billions of parameters. This breakthrough represents a major leap forward for the platform's "Guess What You Like" feature, leveraging generative recommendation (AIGR) technology to deliver unprecedented personalization accuracy.

Performance Metrics and User Benefits

Initial data shows impressive results:

• Double-digit growth in user click-through rates
• Over 5% increase in add-to-cart actions and page dwell time

The system builds upon Taobao's Xingchen LLM, employing reinforcement learning to analyze users' historical behavior across the platform. By processing a decade of consumption patterns and integrating multimodal product data, RecGPT creates remarkably precise recommendations.

Anticipating User Needs

The model demonstrates advanced predictive capabilities:

• Detects life stage changes (e.g., baby product purchases triggering subsequent recommendations)
• Provides time-sensitive suggestions (age-appropriate products before birthdays)
• Offers promotional bundles aligned with brand preferences during shopping events

Enhanced User Experience Features

Key innovations include:

• Automated recommendation explanations: Each suggestion comes with context-aware copy like "The new top trend" or regional tips such as "Anti-moisture magic tool for Hangzhou's plum rain season"
• Integration with Taobao's AIGX technology system, now deployed across multiple business functions including search, bidding, and creative content generation

Industry Impact

This advancement represents:

1. A significant milestone in e-commerce personalization
2. Proof of concept for large model applications in commercial settings
3. A blueprint for combining AI analysis with human-centric design

The technology is expected to drive both commercial performance and customer satisfaction, potentially reshaping standards across the digital retail sector.

Key Points:

• RecGPT processes decades of user data with advanced AI
• System achieves measurable improvements in engagement metrics
• Recommendations now include personalized explanations
• Technology integrated across Taobao's entire ecosystem
• Sets new benchmark for AI-powered e-commerce experiences