Multiple special campaigns strengthen platform governance, with Taobao Flash Sale leveraging AI to reinforce safety defenses in dining and pharmacy purchase scenarios.

As “Artificial Intelligence +” is once again included in the Government Work Report, using cutting-edge technologies to solve the challenges of consumer rights protection and reshape platform governance models has become a key proposition for the industry’s high-quality development. Against this backdrop, Taobao Flash Delivery was the first to crack the problem. Recently, leveraging AI technology, it launched multiple专项治理 (specialized governance) initiatives, including cracking down on “ghost takeout,” intercepting non-compliant pharmaceuticals, and tackling retail businesses with no real inventory sources, promoting a leap in governance capabilities from primarily “human oversight” to deep integration of “technological defense + intelligent defense.” By building an end-to-end security line in scenarios such as food service, pharmaceuticals, and retail, Taobao Flash Delivery is actively exploring a new digital path for coordinated governance among government, businesses, and society—turning technological dividends into a solid barrier that truly safeguards consumers’ rights and interests.

Policy-led “internal actions”: implementing a “3+1+AI” co-governance system

The State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Supervision and Administration Provisions on Network Catering Service Providers Implementing Food Safety Main Responsibility.” Following the principles of prevention-first, risk management, and social co-governance, it further details the platform’s responsibilities across the full chain of operations, strengthens coordinated governance among multiple parties, and provides a system-level guideline for standardized and high-quality development of the network catering industry. As World Consumer Rights Day on March 15 approaches, the China Consumers Association set the annual theme for consumer rights protection as “Enhancing Consumer Quality,” which also marks an upgrade of consumer rights protection toward “quality and excellence,” and puts higher governance requirements on platform companies.

Taobao Flash Delivery internalizes compliance requirements as an inherent driving force for platform governance, proactively benchmarks the new rules and integrates regulatory requirements into the platform’s institutional and technical systems. In network catering scenarios, Taobao Flash Delivery has demonstrated that technological innovation is not only an engine for business growth, but also a key lever for fulfilling the platform’s main responsibility, by building a “3+1+AI” food safety co-governance system.

In this system, “3” refers to three core mechanisms as its foundation: a strict, first-priority merchant onboarding and verification process; daily operations inspection and sampling checks with dynamic coverage; and open and transparent public supervision through “Internet + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove.” “+1” is the takeaway-rider “snap-and-report” mechanism innovatively introduced by the platform.

With support from regulatory authorities and the platform, during meal pickup and while delivering, riders can report certificate or document anomalies, filthy or messy environmental conditions, and other issues on their phones in real time. AI is responsible for identifying issues, dispatching them, and performing priority ranking. A commentary in The People’s Daily noted that this mechanism, grounded in a “mass line” approach that resonates with the people, achieves precise regulatory supplementation.

Meanwhile, the above “3+1” mechanisms are all empowered by “AI” at a deep level: from automatically identifying fake shopfront images and PS-modified certificates at the store-opening stage, to intelligently comparing official certificate databases during operations and dynamically monitoring back-of-house behaviors, to rapid response and assignment of tips and reports from riders and users. AI runs through the entire chain, significantly improving risk identification accuracy and incident-handling efficiency.

In the onboarding and verification stage, the platform uses AI models to automatically identify and compare shopfront signs and the authenticity of certificates, effectively blocking fake credentials. In daily inspection, AI technology goes deep into back-of-house video streams, automatically identifies whether chefs are dressed properly and whether there are food-safety hazards, and issues real-time alerts for abnormal behavior. This “Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove 2.0” approach drives back-of-house livestreaming from truly “being visible” to “being well-managed.” In addition, the platform works with regulatory authorities to roll out a digital tool called “Food Safety Nail,” enabling a closed-loop of off-site supervision—so that regulators can issue rectification notices with a single click, forming efficient coordinated governance.

To address stubborn industry issues, Taobao Flash Delivery has firmly invested in R&D resources, developing and open-sourcing a vertical large model for risk-control governance, “Bai Ze,” for catering and retail stores. With this model, the platform can conduct uninterrupted risk-scene inspections for 24 hours a day, efficiently identify risks, and help the platform rectify them in a timely manner.

Currently, Taobao Flash Delivery has enabled merchants to upload “one shot to the end” videos so they can be labeled as “suitable for on-premises dining.” “Bai Ze” can also, based on video content and relevant store information, comprehensively judge whether the store truly has an on-premises dining environment. By analyzing cross-frame consistency, it identifies whether the video is real or fake, prevents static images or AI-generated videos from slipping through, and ensures that consumers receive a real service experience.

“Bai Ze” has been integrated into more than 100 production scenarios on Taobao Flash Delivery, with call volumes exceeding a 1-billion scale. Token consumption has surpassed the trillion level. The technical capabilities related to “Bai Ze” have been made freely available to the entire industry. Because its deployment cost is only 1/20 of similar solutions, it helps all parties in the network catering industry roll out large-scale applications at extremely low cost, thereby improving the industry’s overall digital governance capabilities.

From technology application to rule co-building: shaping a new form of platform responsibility through innovation

To tackle the “no-inventory operation” issue in the retail sector—an ailment that disrupts market order—Taobao Flash Delivery has recently revised multiple management rules and launched specialized governance actions, taking a “zero tolerance” attitude to reshape the supply-chain ecosystem. Relying on AI risk-control large models, Taobao Flash Delivery builds real-time inspection and review of store information: cross-verifying merchant information and merchant behavior, and establishing strict, continuous merchant health rating standards to screen out risky entities, ensure quality supply, and achieve an accuracy rate above 99.5%. At the same time, it establishes a three-dimensional evaluation model of “store credentials — product authenticity — fulfillment services.” For merchants in high-risk business categories, it restricts product dispatch and pursues deposits. For high-risk merchants, it imposes store-closure penalties.

Since the second half of 2025, Taobao Flash Delivery has cumulatively identified and intercepted no-inventory risk goods more than 3 billion times and cleared out 50k non-compliant merchants. The platform’s new rules also introduce a “global risk assessment” mechanism: if the proportion of lightly to moderately non-compliant goods inside a store is too high, the store will face direct permanent closure. This thoroughly blocks the loophole for merchants to evade supervision by “shipping many minor violations.” This move not only effectively curbs the spread of “black-and-gray industries,” but also forces merchants to return to real inventory sources and comply with fulfillment requirements, laying a credibility foundation for the high-quality development of instant retail.

In the pharmaceutical and health sector, Taobao Flash Delivery places its governance focus on the “safety boundary” and “compliance mindset.” At the end of last year, the platform, together with Tongyi Laboratory and the Bailian Agent platform, launched an “AI Find Medicine” feature. This is not meant to “replace doctors,” but to address issues in online purchasing such as fragmented information, insufficient professional level, and inability to close the loop. As a forward-placed health advisor, AI helps users precisely express their needs, choose medicines scientifically, and avoid medication errors caused by users’ insufficient medical knowledge.

Taobao Flash Delivery further embeds “AI risk control” as infrastructure for pharmaceutical governance. Based on patented technologies and a pharmaceutical knowledge base, the system strictly reviews every piece of drug information. In 2025, the system intercepted more than 1.38 million pieces of non-compliant drug information in total—making “miracle-drug” advertisements disappear. For potential risks involving cross-border drugs, the platform builds relevant knowledge bases and uses AI large models to identify non-compliant products, cumulatively reviewing more than 1.52 million pieces of information and effectively purifying the platform environment.

Beyond AI technology itself, there is even more proactive and warmer care. Taobao Flash Delivery has established a “medication purchase risk intervention mechanism.” Through pharmacist inquiries, restricting large-quantity purchases, and a customer-service psychological assistance hotline, it sets up alerts during the user’s purchase process. In 2025 alone, it detected more than 4,000 customers who purchased high-risk medications. It successfully intervened and coordinated with police to handle multiple high-risk medication purchase incidents. This mechanism fills gaps in the existing system, giving individuals who need to be cared for valuable time to calm down.

The process of transforming technological innovation from quantitative change to qualitative change is reflected in the data. According to Taobao Flash Delivery’s latest intellectual property filings, in 2025, the proportion of AI-related patent applications in the total number of technology patent applications exceeded 50%, and the cumulative number of authorized AI patents surpassed 200.

In addition, for merchants that comply with regulations and actively participate in Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove, Taobao Flash Delivery provides equipment and traffic support, guiding industry ecosystems to truly achieve “the survival of the fittest and the elimination of the unfit.” During this year’s Shanghai Two Sessions, Fang Yongxin, president of Taobao Flash Delivery and a representative of the Shanghai People’s Congress, submitted a proposal. It suggested building a unified “AI + Bright Kitchen and Bright Stove” intelligent system and innovating an incentive mechanism of “the government chips in a bit, the platform reduces a bit, and merchants contribute a bit,” to help the catering industry plan for intelligentization.

Taobao Flash Delivery consistently upholds governance responsibility across “three dimensions”: for users, it firmly holds the safety bottom line and decisively safeguards consumer rights and interests through the “3+1+AI” system; for merchants, through transparent rules and technical empowerment, it guides compliant operations and simultaneously helps them achieve a digital upgrade of their food-safety governance capabilities; for regulators and the industry, it proactively open-sources food-safety AI large models and continuously explores coordinated pathways for multi-party co-governance.

Looking ahead, Taobao Flash Delivery says it will adhere to the philosophy of “technology for good,” further deepening AI governance applications in more scenarios, and explore a path of deep integration of “algorithms + governance.” It is committed to making every consumer order safer and more reassuring, and to building a transparent, trustworthy, and warm consumer ecosystem with digital new-quality productive forces.