The Startup Ideas Podcast - Making $$ with Alibaba's NEW AI Agents (Full Demo)

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

I walk through Alibaba’s new AI agent tool, Accio, and show how it helps you go from “what should I build?” to actual product concepts and supplier options. I demo how it spots rising trends, pulls specific product opportunities (with context like search and sales movement), and even generates early design concepts. Then I test it on a real research task and use that to spin up a “cozy gaming” keyboard concept aimed at Gen-Z women. I close by showing how Accio can vet suppliers and even draft a supplier outreach email so you can start the sourcing process faster. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro 01:55 – Trend Spotting Demo 03:31 – Designing Products Demo 07:04 – Product Opportunity Pain Points Demo 10:10 – Supplier Search Demo 11:06 – Mechanical Keyboard Market Research and Pain Points 16:03 – Cozy Gaming Mechanical Keyboard For Gen Z Women 18:42 – Supplier Vetting + Due Diligence 22:00 – Supplier Outreach Key Points Accio compresses the e-commerce workflow: trends → product ideas → design concepts → supplier shortlists. The real leverage is pairing insights (ratings, negative tags, review pain) with concrete product recommendations. The “agent task” flow feels like a research assistant: it gathers sources, updates a plan, and synthesizes outputs. Accio can move from concept to execution by suggesting suppliers and drafting a structured inquiry email. You still need real diligence: call suppliers, vet claims, and start with small orders. Numbered Section Summaries Accio As An “Unfair Advantage” For E-Commerce I introduce Accio as an AI agent built around e-commerce workflows—idea generation, trend analysis, product concepts, and supplier sourcing. My core point is it reduces the friction that usually keeps me (a software person) from starting e-commerce. Trend Spotting That Goes Beyond Generic Charts Using a baby products example, I show that it’s not just search/sales graphs—it surfaces specific product categories and differentiators (like smart features) plus recommendations you can validate elsewhere. Turning Pop Culture Into Product Concepts (With Caveats) I try a “Squid Game” prompt to generate product directions and visuals. I’m clear this isn’t a “press button, print money” system, but it gets the creative juices flowing and connects ideas to sourcing. Finding Opportunities By Reading What Customers Hate In the senior dog pet supplies example, Accio highlights product opportunities and connects them to the underlying pain (accessibility, cognitive decline, weak ratings). I emphasize that the edge is insight—knowing why current products underperform. Supplier Discovery Without The Usual Alibaba Overwhelm I run a supplier prompt with constraints (OEM, private label, MOQ, certifications, reviews). The key is Accio structures what’s normally chaotic and gives a shortlist you can actually act on. Agent Research: Mechanical Keyboard Pain Points, Ranked I test an agent task to find unmet pain points and cluster them by theme, with “proof” from reviews/forums/Q&A. The point isn’t keyboards—it’s showing how fast you can go from “trend” to “what to build” using structured research. From Pain Points To A Launchable Niche Concept (Cozy Gaming) I pivot from the research into a niche: mechanical keyboards for Gen Z women aligned with “cozy gaming.” Accio proposes brand directions, a flagship product concept, and early roadmap thinking. Reality Check: Sourcing, Verification, And Outreach I ask for trusted suppliers and get a short list plus technical verification prompts (finish, sound profile, color matching). Accio then drafts a supplier email and shows how the workflow can extend to sending inquiries—while I remind you to vet suppliers carefully and start small. The #1 tool to find startup ideas/trends - https://www.ideabrowser.com LCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/ The Vibe Marketer - Resources for people into vibe marketing/marketing with AI: https://www.thevibemarketer.com/ FIND ME ON SOCIAL X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg Instagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/

Why is no one talking about Alibaba's new AI agent platform? It's made it ridiculous easy to find ideas, find trends, find suppliers, reach out to them and figure out if there's an opportunity for a multi-million dollar e-commerce business. I'm a guy who's a software entrepreneur. You know, I stay away from e-commerce. I know my lane. But this new AI agent platform, it's called Axio by Alibaba, is getting me a little converted. You know, now there's an opportunity for me to use something that makes it easy to start an e-commerce business.

And I love unfair advantages. So this episode, if you stick to the end, you'll understand how to use Axio. And you might be like me interested in starting a multi-million dollar e-commerce business in 2026. Enjoy the episode. I've never been a huge e-commerce person. And a big reason for that is because it's been so hard to understand what to build, why to build. build it and how to build it. And today we're going to go through Axios. Axio. And by the end of this episode, you will understand how to use it. And maybe in 2026, building a really big e-commerce business. And even if you're not, if you're like me and you're a software person or you're a boring business person and you, you know, you've never created an e-commerce business. Learning these tools is super helpful. So I encourage you to stay to the end. Let's go. Let's get into it. So when you

get to Axio, it's actually free. And by the way, I have no affiliation with Alibaba or this company. I'm just a guy who likes to use products that, you know, give me an unfair advantage. You can see that they've given you some examples of how to use the product. So for example, spot rising trends. So it says analyze current market trends in baby products and identify what is gaining traffic. So you can click here, view details. So it gives you an overview and it ties into Amazon trends. You can see here the search volume is in the blue and in the pink, the sales count. There's things, but like, okay, you can get that trend data anywhere. What's really interesting is it gives you actual products that are crushing it. So it's like convertible cribs with Green Guard gold certification. This is like a category I would never have thought of or multifunctionable. functional convertible crids with beds and smart features.

And by the way, I have a baby. So, like, I should be thinking about this. And I'm an idea guy, so I should be thinking about this. But I, you know, haven't. So I think that, you know, this is why it's good to use this. And it gives you more market insights, right? Organic and natural products. Okay, I could have come up with that.

But, you know, smart baby products are, you know, are, is a key differentiator. Smart monitors, app connected thermometers, automating feeding systems are gaining popularity. And then you can go in like a perplexity or whatever, go and actually check the sources. So it gives you the product recommendations. It says based on stable demand for electric nasal aspirators, despite flucturing surge volumes, enhancing features like suction power, temperature control, ease of cleaning. So it gives you these products. It shows what's working. And I think that's pretty cool. But what I think it's even more cool is that it could actually create product designs.

So, for example, you can hear, since Squid Game, Netflix 3 is popular right now, I want to design some products based on Squid Games. Help me figure out what kind of products can sell well and generate product design image. And then it goes and actually does a market analysis on it. And it shows like, you know, okay, here's these costumes and masks.

Here's some guard costumes. Netflix Player 456 jacket, all these different things. and it literally gives you product design concepts. Now, is this something that is good to go and you can just say like, okay, go make it? I don't think so, but it's getting you the creative juices, at least getting my creative juices flowing. And it puts all these product design concepts into visualizations. And then what I think is most importantly, it actually gives you who you could reach out to to go and build these things and what it's going to cost.

So you can see here, you know, $6.71 for a hoodie. And, you know, it's a verified manufacturer. And if you click here, it says matches. So why is it a match? Eight on N matches. Well, because they do screen printing. They do embroidery. And I think this is why it's cool that it's built in with Alibaba.

And by the way, it doesn't just integrate with Alibaba. It integrates with other Alibaba Express and a few others. So it gives you that data. And then you could go ahead and just reach out to people. Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, just said that it is the era of the idea guy and he is not wrong. I think that right now is an incredible time to be building a startup. And if you listen to this podcast, chances are you think so too. Now, I think that you can look at trends to basically figure out what are the startup ideas you should be building.

So that's exactly why I built Idea Browser.com. Every single day, you're going to get a free startup idea in your inbox, and it's all backed by high-quality data trends. How we do it, people always ask. We use AI agents to go and search, what are people looking for? And what are they screaming for in terms of products that you should be building? And then we hand it on a silver platter for you to go check out. We do have a few paid plans that, you know, take it to the next level, give you more. more ideas, give you more AI agents and more, almost like a chatGBT for ideas with it.

But you can start for free, ideabrowser.com. And if you're listening to this, I highly recommend it. You can see here, it also gives you some insight around like what's the margin potential. So like hoodies, for example, the margin is 2 to 300%. Maybe I want to do that. But oh no, maybe a phone case is 3 to 400%. And it tells you the MOQ range. basically how many units, and then the wholesale price and the target retail. But it also says that you need to do licensing, right? So why is this all like really interesting? Is it's giving you ideas. It's basically like a partner for you and, you know, someone who's going and doing the analysis. And I think it's, I think it's super, super helpful. Let's go through a few

more and then I'm also going to prompt it myself. So let's go and see here's a new sort of feature that they analyze. Sorry, a new feature that they come out with. Help me identify product opportunity pain points in pet supplies that serve the senior dog's niche market. So you can see here. Here's the product opportunities, advance orthopedic sleep solutions. Would never have thought about this, right? It says like have cooling gel integration. for temperature regulation, low profiles for easy access. Makes sense, right? If you're a senior dog, you know, you want a low profile for easy access.

Memory foam technology. I could see a product like this absolutely crushing it. Cognitive simulation product. So, you know, senior dogs face cognitive decline. This creates opportunities for interactive smart toys, treat dispensing puzzle feeders, memory enhancing accessories. And then it literally, you know, mocked. up, you know, what it could look like. And like, that's AI, man. That's, I mean, yes, the

STOM over there, like, that's, I don't know what that means. But, like, it's interesting, right? This looks like an interesting product. And it is good fodder to start with. And then from there, you can iterate. And, you know, you could iterate with other tools, by the way, like I've talked about on the channel, things like nano, banana, etc. So it gives you all the search volume. It gives you the positive tags and negative tags. So this is based on Amazon trends. So you can see that there's washable P-pads for senior dogs and the average rating is 3.88.

So like that's a bad rating, right? So that means that there's an opportunity to create great products. And it's telling you why people aren't enjoying the product. on Amazon. This is so insightful, you know. I've talked about before how this is the age of the idea person, but it's also the age of the insight person, right? You need these insights in order to actually create products that people want.

And I think that's what's so cool about this age is you can use a product like this to get the insight so that you don't waste years of your life here. So I love this, you know, joint health supplement. It just tells you exactly how many monthly searches, what the average rating is. And then it gives you the hot selling market analysis, joint supplements. You can see here, retail price versus hotel price. For me, this is some of the most helpful insights is when it actually tells you with the market opportunities, right? So it's telling you arthritis, hip dysplasia, all these things.

And then, you know, that helps me ideate for what type of product. I want to create. So what's really cool about Axio is it helps me on the idea side. It helps me on the trend side. And it helps me in terms of who I should reach out to. So let's do one around like sourcing. So fine manufacturers that offer high quality, this is the prompt, fine manufacturers that offer high quality facial cleansing brush with OEM service,

private label available, MOQ 500 with official certification. and strong reviews. So it literally is giving me all the different suppliers right here and then I can reach out to them through this product. And you can see like, okay, people are satisfied with this, right?

If you would have gone to alibaba.com, it would have been way overwhelming. You can see like what the reorder rate of these things are. So pretty darn, darn cool. I have some more prompts that I want to prompt it

and I want to see how it would work. So let's just try a couple of them. I'm in the market for a mechanical keyboard and I've been getting a lot of ads for it and I think mechanical keyboards are being, you know, it's a trend that's gotten bigger of the last five, six years.

So I said, analyze mechanical keyboard and list the top 10 unmet customer pain points with proof from reviews, forms, Amazon Q&A, cluster them by theme, and rank by urgency and willingness to pay. So we're going to see if Axio could actually go and do that. It says, yeah, it's an agent task, thinking through your request to create the most effective approach and detailed plan, no worries.

So we start the agent task. And it really does feel like you're using something like a manis, you know. It does feel like agent-oriented. You know, when I use manis, it was like the first process. like I ever used that it felt like it was agents like the agent era was here and and this does feel the same. So it says it's gathering customer feedback on mechanical keyboards. You can check its sources if you double click here. And it says I will search for mechanical keyboard customer reviews, form discussions on Reddit and geek hack and common Q&A displays. Common Q&A complaints to get

user pain points. So it works pretty quick. It's a, you know, it's been only a few seconds, and it says, I've gathered a good amount of data from general searches and specific form summaries. I've detailed information on hardware reliability, customization gaps, software issues, aesthetics, market shifts. I have enough proof from reviews. And then it says, I can now synthesize these into the top 10

pain points, cluster them and rank them as requested. Think about what we're doing, which is absolutely insane. We've heard about a trend. Either we just in life heard about a trend. Maybe it's on Instagram, TikTok, ideabrowser.com. And then we've gone and said like, hey, we want to create a product in this space, basically. But we need to understand the pain points best because we don't want to be just coming up with ideas not based on data. So we're getting the data

And we're going to go and create something That has the highest likelihood of success for that reason So it comes up with the plan, right? Oh, interesting. Whoa, okay, cool. So I'll do one quick search Specifically for willingness to pay and budget Keebs To better quantify that ranking factor.

One search to confirm the willingness to pay for specific features like the Hall Effect switches or premium stabilizers. After that, I will compete. Wait, I should check if there's more specific data on willingness to pay for fixing these issues. Users often mention I'd pay an extra X dollars for a feature. I'll look for that specifically to fulfill the rank by willingness to pay requirement accurately. This isn't just an AI agent platform. This is a smart AI agent platform specifically designed with e-commerce in mind.

that would not, you know, happen on a lot of the other agent platforms because I think that this just understands, you know, the e-commerce mindset. So it's now gone ahead and updated the plan. It's done, you know, final targeted search for willingness to pay. It's completed the task. And looks like we are almost done. Yeah. So let's see what we got. So it's gone ahead and shown what the pain points are key chatter,

lack of hot swap and mainstream, bloated buggy software, poor wireless. It doesn't really matter. It just doesn't matter to us, really. The point is, because you guys are probably not working on a mechanical keyboard company, but the point is, like, this, as someone who's in the, you know, I'm not in the mechanical keyboard business, but in the market for mechanical keyboards, To me, that makes sense that those are some of the key features. So it's gone and put it into a chart.

The double typing, the key chatter, is like the biggest, highest urgency complaint. Lack of hotswot PCB, the most common source of buyer confusion or regrets. Stabilizer, rattle, mushy keys, proprietary software bloat. This is incredible. And then it goes, would you like me to research specific brands that's successfully addressing these pain points or perhaps analyze a different peripheral category. Wow, that's a hard word to say sometimes.

I would say I'm looking to build a mechanical keyboard company for Gen Z women. and I really like the trend of cozy gaming. So I had actually seen like an ad, like a cozy gaming ad. And I think that that's where the opportunity is. So it's going to go ahead and research this trend, cozy gaming. And then building mechanical keyboards for this particular audience. And then if I was actually going to build this thing, but one need to find the suppliers and work with the suppliers,

and we can do that on Axio. But the second thing would be also, you know, once I've built this thing, reaching out to all the different creators in this niche and getting them a part of it, you know, is to help get distribution and stuff like that. So it's synthesizing the previous research to create a brand identity and cozy gaming product concept,

tailored for Genzi Women. including a preliminary product roadmap. So this includes a suggested brand name, Cloud Key or Nookin Switch. Actually, not bad. A mission statement focused on turning the desk into a sanctuary. I absolutely love that. And a product line, the sanctuary series,

featuring tactile materials like ceramic coatings and thawkey acoustics. I also prioritize a three-phase product roadmap, starting with a flagship, 75% wireless keyboard. How good is this? How good is this and why is no one talking about it? Maybe they're not talking about it because it's Alibaba, China, and there's that whole thing. Maybe they're not talking about it because they're just, I don't know, maybe people just haven't heard of this. So anyways, we've gotten some of the data here.

It gives you the product concept, the sanctuary series. They're calling the company Cloud Key or Nook and Switch. It tells you what the features are. And it gives you the visual concepts. And this, you know, that looks pretty cozy to me. That looks pretty cozy. Look how cool that is. How with a little mushroom there?

Are you kidding me? That's awesome. So I'm going to say, okay, this looks great and all. but I need a trusted supplier from Alibaba or somewhere else to reach out to and create this and make it a reality. Give me a list. So we're going to ask the agent to go and give us a list of it, identify and vetting. suppliers. You used to have to either search endlessly on places like Alibaba and other kind of like sketchy marketplaces. You don't have to do that now. You can just ask the agent to do it.

It's going to rank it by the ones that it thinks is going to be best. And then that's when you actually have to do some of the hard work of like vetting these people, right? Just because they say it's 4.7 or people had a good experience doesn't mean you're going to have a good experience. So please, please do call these people, make sure that you feel good about them as well. And get to know them, right? You don't buy 50 units in the beginning. Don't buy 5,000, right? So, but the point is, like, why aren't we using this, right?

This just, like, makes me want to start an e-commerce company in 2026. And I can't even believe I'm saying that. Because the reason I wouldn't start an e-commerce company is because it's just hard to do. But with things like this, it makes it a lot easier. So it's still working on the task. But it's giving me some notable suppliers. Like you can see, this Shang-Zu, Damelin electronic technology, which supplies brands like Leobog,

So it's going to go ahead and do that. It gives a short list summary. It says, you know, the Zengzu is the number one, the most aligned partner because they're building. So I guess some of the bigger competitors. But let's see. Okay. So it's going to go, so it's made, it's given me four. And it's given me like mid range, high volume.

so it's telling me why it's great. And then, okay, but like, how do I outreach? So when you reach out to these suppliers, I recommend starting with three critical technical verifications, the ceramic finish rather than the annotization, the sound profile, confirm they can support a five-layer internal dampening structure to achieve the thawky rain sound signature

and the color matching. Verify if they can match the PVT, key cap plastic color to the CNC, see case color versus seamless monochromic aesthetic. Would you like me to draft a professional inquiry email you can send to these suppliers? Or should I research cozy influencers for your launch partnership? That's a bit too ahead right now. But I'm going to say, yeah, you can draft an inquiry email.

Also, I was wondering, is there any suppliers on Al? Alibaba that I can reach out to too. These don't seem like they are on Alibaba or another or similar website. So let's see what that says. But what's cool about this platform is it seems like it works, right? A lot of times you're working at a new LLM or a new product and it's sort of, it goes a bit wonky. But most, you know, I've been just, I'm impressed. I'm impressed here.

So verify supplier platforms and search for additional options. So it's going and doing that. And this will be our last thing that we'll ask. But I'm just curious. Okay. Oh, so these suppliers are in D, are. Indeed on, they're actually on Alibaba. So, wow.

So, hi, I'm looking to, this is the outreach email. I'm looking for a high-end manufacturing partner for our upcoming Gen Z-Focus brand Cloud Key. We are developing Nook 75, a premium 75% mechanical keyboard designing for the cozy gaming aesthetic. Specifications. It puts it all out there, so I don't have to do anything. The customization. delivery terms. It gives you the top verified Alibaba suppliers

and then says strategic outreach recommendations. Don't ask for Matt Paint specifically ask for e-coding. These are the things that, like, why I wouldn't go and start a new e-commerce product company is for these little things

that I would never have asked. I feel like I would just get rinsed, rinsed, rinsed, rinsed, if I started an e-commerce company for these reasons. But with something like Axio, you know, it seems I just feel more confident. And then it gives you a whole document of all the different people I could be reaching out to with a checklist and technical questions. And I can even press the send inquiry button direct from Axio.

All right. This is really cool. There you have it, folks. my tour of Alibaba's new and really cool e-commerce, LLM called Axio, no affiliation, but think it's cool. And it's got me thinking about e-commerce, startup ideas in 2026. I hope you enjoyed this. If you did, please drop a like, a comment, share it with a friend.

So I know that I should be doing more of these startup idea podcasts, episodes. And if I should, should I be doing more e-commerce stuff? Is that interesting to you? Or should I stick to my lane of just software? Or do you like me, you like me to spice it up here and there? Thanks, everyone, and I'll see you next time.