China's 618 Shopping Festival Shows Weak Consumer Demand Despite Record AI Deployment Across Alibaba, JD, and ByteDance

Reuters reports China's 618 mid-year shopping festival highlighted an AI-deployment first: Alibaba integrated Qwen conversational ordering into Taobao, ByteDance reduced merchant customer-service labor costs by ~70% with AI, and JD deployed LLM-driven logistics across its entire fulfillment chain. Industry analysts call 2026 the 'first AI-native grand promotion year.' Yet overall consumer demand remained subdued, underscoring a structural confidence gap that AI investment alone cannot bridge.