On September 30, 2025, Alibaba officially announced that Xu Zhuhong, who serves as both the Group's Vice President and the Chief Scientist of the Smart Information Business Group, has made a transition to the Tongyi Laboratory. There, he will assume leadership in driving research focused on multimodal interaction models. Moving forward, he will directly report to Zhou Jingren, the head of the Tongyi Laboratory.

Xu Zhuhong brings with him a wealth of over two decades of experience, spanning both the AI industry and academia. Currently, he holds a tenure-track professorship at Singapore Management University. His academic prowess is evident from his publication of over 300 top-tier academic papers, which have collectively garnered more than 50,000 citations. Additionally, his exceptional contributions have earned him a place on Stanford University's prestigious list of the world's top 1% scientists.