Taotian Gold Code Award Concludes: 20 Super Engineers Emerge, Driving AI Native Practices

The second Taotian Group Business Technology Gold Code Award concluded on May 14, 2026, marking another milestone in the company's push toward AI-native practices. The competition attracted over 1,000 technical employees, including some who had been with the company for only three months. Ultimately, 20 participants were honored with the Super Engineer award, the top individual prize. In the team-based AI Maker Challenge, groups named "Dalaran," "Weak Water 3,000," and "Buy Yours, Buy Yours" took the championship, runner-up, and second runner-up positions, respectively.

The Gold Code Award, originally established in 2014 as the Taobao Technology Gold Code Award, has evolved from a pure code review contest into a cultural event that reflects Taotian's transition into the AI era. This year, the organizers introduced significant updates to the competition format and award categories. The overarching theme was "let AI run on the main track," emphasizing the integration of AI tools into the technical delivery process. To support this vision, two new tracks were launched: the AI Coder Ranking Competition and the AI Maker Challenge. These events encouraged participants to demonstrate skills such as prompt engineering, model fine-tuning, and toolchain integration, enabling AI to truly collaborate in the workflow.

The AI Maker Challenge comprised two stages: an online leaderboard competition and a final hackathon. The online challenge presented participants with a problem titled "AI Native Taobao," which called for bold reimagination of traditional app interaction patterns. Contestants were tasked with using AI agents to close the loop on Taobao's core features, exploring the limits of AI Native capabilities and user experience in e-commerce. The final hackathon required teams to build a solution within three hours based on a surprise prompt: creating an AI-powered concert companion that understands aesthetics, rules, and cost-effectiveness.

In parallel with the award, Taotian has been accelerating its AI initiatives across the board. On May 11, 2026, Taobao fully integrated with Qianwen, Alibaba's AI assistant, launching a new AI shopping experience. Users can now open the Qianwen app, talk to the AI, and complete product selection, comparison, and purchasing on Taobao. Similarly, within the Taobao app, the "Qianwen AI Shopping Assistant" provides features like AI virtual try-on, AI discount calculation, and AI low-price snatching. On the same day, Taotian unveiled the AI Shop Assistant (AI店小蜜), an AI agent embedded in the business process to enhance merchant operational efficiency. According to the company, the "AI + human" model has already surpassed human-only customer service in overall conversion, with a 10% improvement in inquiry conversion rates. With the launch of AI Shop Assistant, the customer service industry officially enters a new chapter characterized by AI leadership with human assistance.