The next frontier of AI is emerging.

In September 2024, OpenAI released a new AI model, o1, with human-like reasoning ability, capable of solving complex multi-step problems. This technological advancement rapidly and profoundly impacts the application layer, greatly influencing the decisions of AI venture companies, mature software companies, and investors. Subsequently, following the footsteps of OpenAI in releasing o1, many tech giants in the USA, including Salesforce, Microsoft, and Google, announced their AI Agents plans, instantly pushing the competition in the AI field to a whole new level.

In October, across the ocean, China's SaaS company Weimob, listed in Hong Kong, held the first "Technology Open Day and AI Product Launch Conference" in Shanghai. Weimob CEO Sun Taoyong expressed his understanding and thoughts on the Agentic AI era, while elaborating on the upgrade and innovation of Weimob's core business based on AI Agents, as well as the AI technological breakthroughs and business results verified by customer application scenarios that Weimob has long focused on in the e-commerce retail industry.

Since this year, whether in Silicon Valley or in China, everyone has shifted their focus from the necessity of large models (as it is already a consensus) to more practical considerations on how to create value, empower industries, and implement applications. This may explain why this event, which includes both business data and customer examples, was fully packed, with intermittent applause and cheers heard at the venue.

Weimob has not only improved its own efficiency by an average of 20-30% through AI, with cost savings expected to reach 20-40 million in the first phase, but AI Agents are also driving a significant increase in customer renewal rates and monthly active users. Customer PhM Huaxi Pharm also shared on site that Weimob WAI has covered three major application scenarios in daily operations - "private domain operations, new media operations, and major promotional event operations", with significant improvements in efficiency and cost reduction.

How big is the incremental commercialization of AI? For the SaaS industry, it may still be too early to discuss the commercial benefits of AI. Not only does AI technology need improvement in accuracy and reliability, the market is gradually understanding and accepting AI technology. Many potential customers do not have a clear understanding of the actual applications and value of AI technology, but everything is likely just a matter of "time". Let's observe the commercialization process of Weimob from short-term, medium-term, and long-term perspectives, and through the AI applications of Weimob, provide some references to investors or applications seeking prospects in the AI race.

Short-term: AI enhances service value, Weimob's SaaS and marketing businesses are undergoing value reshaping.

As a provider of cloud-based business and marketing solutions, the e-commerce retail industry is the core market for Weimob. In recent years, the e-commerce retail industry has also faced fierce market competition and evolving consumer demands, necessitating technological innovation to improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and explore new growth points.

Traditional e-commerce operations require many positions, such as designers, commodity operations, and community operations. However, with the introduction of AI Agent, this situation will undergo fundamental changes. In the future, traditional employee roles may be replaced by AI Agents, or new collaboration models may be formed with AI. In the era of Agentic AI, the functional structure and value chain of the e-commerce industry will undergo significant changes.

After 2 years of exploration and layout, Weimob has successfully launched three major intelligent solutions, Weimob WAI, WAI Pro, and WIME, which can provide adaptive AI Agent solutions for different customer groups. Among them, Weimob WAI is an AI intelligent management solution for brands and small and medium-sized merchants, WAI Pro provides enterprise-level personalized AI application solutions for Weimob's own marketing business sector and external brand customers, while WIME is positioned to handle all aspects of e-commerce creation by one person.

Qiu Haoping, head of Weimob AI, pointed out that the AI Agent "toolbox" of Weimob WAI SaaS version covers various aspects from store building to content marketing, helping customers succeed by forming an AI "super management team". The core of AI+SaaS lies in its ability to link insights, decisions, and execution, forming a closed loop for daily operations, adapting to different stages of customer operations from the "novice store opening period, operation start-up period to operation maturity stage", providing real assistance for customers to use complex SaaS systems and improve operation efficiency.

Using the example of PhM Huaxi Fama, a brand that started using Weimob WAI in May this year, Weimob WAI has helped it achieve rapid generation of community copywriting and efficient image design in private domain operations, achieving a threefold overall efficiency improvement; in new media operations, ensuring brand consistency through one-click imitation writing and efficient writing, achieving an overall efficiency increase of 80%; and in major promotional activities, intelligent generation and landing of solutions and analysis of multidimensional activity data reduced overall costs by 60%, significantly improving operational flexibility and response speed.

After the launch of AI Agent in July 2024, the monthly active customer base of Weimob WAI SaaS version increased by 74% month-on-month, with the AI Assistant achieving an accuracy rate of 82.5% in system Q&A. Meanwhile, after the Agent team went online, comparing Q3 with Q2, the delivery volume of new SaaS customers increased by 217.7% for WAI usage, and AI commercial revenue increased by 237%. The renewal rate of small and medium-sized merchants using WAI in 2024 reached 75%.

It is worth noting that the renewal rate of merchants using Weimob WAI is surprising, currently around 24% in the domestic SaaS market, Weimob has tripled it. "Renewal is the essence of SaaS and the key to profitability", this is the consensus in the SaaS industry.

Mid-term: Insights from the commercialization process of global SaaS leader Salesforce

Firstly, the application of AI from investment to monetization takes time. Salesforce launched an artificial intelligence framework called Einstein in 2016, marking the company's formal entry into the AI field. Continuous research and development integration and breakthroughs in key AI technologies have made 2023 a critical turning point for the commercial explosion of Salesforce's AI applications.

As a mature SaaS listed company, Weimob has always kept up with the development of AI technology. As early as 2021, OpenAI released the DALL-E text-to-image model, and the following year, Weimob's 'Meng Chuang' quickly went live, empowering designers with AI drawing capabilities.

In terms of judging the development trend of SaaS integrated with AI, Weimob's vision and decision-making are exceptionally accurate. From the very beginning of promoting AI, the company firmly determined that Agent is a form of AI that is usable and can enter practical scenarios. In May 2023, Weimob released the first version of WAI, incorporating WAI assistants, BI assistants, and other Agents.

The Promotional Agent team that went online in June 2024 has been deployed to more than 320 SaaS customers, providing multiple recommendations, implementation, and system configurations for major promotions. After the AI Agent went online in July 2024, Weimob's WAI SaaS version saw a 74% monthly active customer increase, with the WAI assistant's accuracy in system Q&A reaching as high as 82.5%.

As of now, Weimob's WAI has a total of 15 major AI Agent products, including 'System Customer Service, Product Selector, Designer, Merchant Assistant, Online Store Operations, Decoration Specialist, Promotion Planner, Event Operations, Short Video Operations, Live Streaming Operations, Membership Operations, Multi-channel Operations, Product Operations, Shopping Guide Assistant, and Data Consultants'.

The Jiazi Light-Year Think Tank's 'China AI Agent Industry Research Report' points out that the current market is on the eve of an outbreak of commercial AI Agent products. Is Weimob also leading the SaaS industry and approaching a key moment in commercial breakthrough? This is worth investors' attention.

Furthermore, SaaS companies have mature business models with clearer monetization paths. Guosheng Securities evaluated in August 2023 that the commercialization of AI could contribute $8.7 billion in annual revenue to Salesforce, mainly through raising prices for existing products and selling AI products in combination or as standalone purchases. Salesforce raised prices on existing products for the first time in seven years by 9%, bringing in an additional $2 billion in revenue.

Based on the mid-2024 report, Weimob's SaaS revenue reached $0.487 billion, accounting for nearly 60% of total revenue. During the conference, the recent business data of Weimob after using the AI Agents were provided: whether it's the growth in monthly active users, the increase in WAI usage, or the rise in AI commercial revenue, the overall growth brought by revitalizing this revenue segment is promising.

In addition, Weimob's expansion of AI application layout from the To B market to the To C market through WIME is a successful initial attempt. According to the '2024 China New E-commerce Development Report', the number of flexible employees in China's e-commerce industry has exceeded 80 million. With the continuous expansion of the e-commerce market, individual merchants and small and medium enterprises have an increasingly urgent need for intelligence. WIME is poised to have broad market prospects and growth space.

Looking at the landing situation of WIME, after only two months of launch, the user registration volume of WIME in September increased by 149% month-on-month, and the payment rate increased by 160% month-on-month, proving that WIME can solve the real needs and pain points of merchants. In addition, some advantageous features are also attracting merchants to pay, such as the upgraded ability of commodity marketing posters, which has increased the payment rate of merchants by 441%.

By focusing on consumer C-end, Weimob can obtain immediate and effective feedback in function development and product innovation, thereby gaining advantages and a leading position in strategic layout. Moreover, many super individuals using WIME are providing services for enterprises, helping Weimob adopt a bottom-up, low-communication approach to acquire new B-end customers, reducing customer acquisition costs and sales cycles.

Long Term: In the Agentic AI era, vertical Know-how remains a commercial moat.

In the near future, the accuracy and reliability of AI technology will significantly improve, and more enterprises and individuals will confidently apply AI technology to core business processes. Some industry experts also believe that the development and application of AI technology are changing the landscape of the enterprise software industry, with AI gradually replacing software.

Could it be that the traditional SaaS software and AI are truly in a competitive relationship, and there is no middle ground?

In fact, in the Agentic AI era, industry know-how remains a reliable barrier for SaaS vendors. Only by possessing industry know-how can we transform knowledge into the ability to harness AI and help customers achieve business results. Between AI and SaaS, it is more about seeking a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship rather than direct competition. Software SaaS companies have commercial scenarios and have accumulated a large amount of industry know-how, data, and customers. AI has powerful algorithms and data processing capabilities, and working together to promote the commercialization of AI may be the right solution.

Weimob's answer is that in the future, they will provide not only software Saas, but also a team with digital employees.

Weimob's AI leader, Qiu Haoping, stated at the conference that since OpenAI came to the forefront in 2022, many tech professionals have been "looking for nails with a hammer," using AI to find practical applications. Weimob's AI team has also gone through this process, using AI to solve real-world problems and pain points for users. This method of steadily building and running a technical system from the ground up has established a very solid practical foundation for the development of WAI SaaS, WAI PRO, and WIME, three products.

The commercial potential of AI products is enormous. Looking back on the past decade, Weimob has already helped millions of businesses achieve digital transformation, not only having rich customer resources and commercial application scenarios, but also accumulating a large amount of know-how and data from different industries. Sun Taoyong stated that over the past decade, Weimob has helped businesses upgrade digitally; in the next decade, it aims to help them upgrade intelligently.

This is a story of a mature Chinese SaaS company embracing innovation, empowerment, and growth in the process of embracing AI. With the continuous advancement of AI technology, the future is full of endless possibilities.