I attended an offline meetup of the Wealth Creation Skills in the Beijing area yesterday.

I originally thought it would just be a normal exchange, but I was quite shocked after hearing the sharing from the person in charge of the Yabao Road business district.
Everyone should know Yabao Road in Beijing, a very representative cross-border trade commercial area in Beijing, which was even more impressive than Yiwu before.
They now have partnered with over 2,000 merchants and are working on cross-border e-commerce and the OPC alliance.
What touched me the most is:
They are no longer just talking about "AI empowering traditional industries" in PPTs, but merchants are actually starting to make money with AI.
Some merchants are already using AI to create scripts for short videos to promote products.
For a product, in the past, it might take an hour or two to think of selling points, write copy, translate, and revise scripts.
Now, with AI, they can generate a draft in just over ten minutes.
Some merchants are also trying to use AI for product descriptions, multi-language translation, customer responses, and content for their independent sites.
These things may sound unglamorous, but they are very practical for traditional merchants.
Because their daily problems are very specific:
Too many products, can't keep up with new listings.
Customers come from different countries, communication is too slow.
Want to make short videos but no one knows how to write scripts.
Want to build an independent site but don’t know where to start.
Want to do cross-border e-commerce but lack tools, people, and methods.
My biggest feeling after listening is:
Many people are still debating whether AI will change the world.
But in places like Yabao Road, AI has already started changing how business owners do business.
Traditional merchants don’t care about large model parameters.
They only care about:
1. Can it help me list more products?
2. Can it help me respond to customers faster?
3. Can it help me translate Chinese into English, Russian, Arabic?
4. Can it help me produce more short videos?
5. Can it help me move offline products online?
If yes, then it’s a good tool.
And the most important thing here is: they are not without needs.
They have products, merchants, customers, and transaction scenarios, but lack people and tools that can land these solutions.
Now I think, the next big opportunity for AI may not only be in internet companies.
It could be in real commercial districts like Yabao Road, Yiwu, Bai Ma in Guangzhou, and Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen.
Whoever can help these merchants run content, translation, short videos, independent sites, and overseas customer acquisition will have a chance.
Yabao Road is also looking for more OPC service providers, and the Chaoyang government has AI startup subsidy policies.
If you have reliable AI tools, cross-border solutions, short video plans, independent site plans, or if you can serve cross-border e-commerce merchants, feel free to contact me.
They hold an offline OPC event every Saturday, and I can take you there.
And just to clarify, this is not just a concept; these are the real needs of 2,000 merchants.