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How did BYD’s sales-lead conversion jump 119% thanks to AI?

Martyna Kozlowska
Marketing Manager

Imagine someone types your company’s name into a search engine… and never clicks your website.

Yet you still smile.

Sounds twisted?

Done right, it appears that it can be highly profitable.

In November 2024 BYD started using 24×7 generative-AI concierge inside Baidu Search, built with ERNIE AgentBuilder.

ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration) - Baidu's large language model, similar to Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s GPT-4.

Six weeks later sales-lead conversion jumped 119%, a gain most OEMs chase all year.

ernie byd AI use

Below I unpack how the AI agent works and why it potentially can beat a static homepage.

How potential customers meet the agent

  • Entry-point — Searching “比亚迪” (or any model of the company’s cars) triggers an agent card pinned atop Baidu results. Important note: it only appears for logged‑in, Mainland‑IP users.
  • Front card — Up to three mobile screens of rich content (brand story, hero shots, hot offers).
  • Chat — ERNIE + RAG* answers free-form queries, exports side-by-side spec tables, and calls Baidu Maps for one-tap navigation.
  • Action widgets (组件) — Buttons for test-drive booking, brochure download, coupons or BYD mini-program, matched to the keyword intent.

* RAG - an architecture that bolts a retriever onto a large-language model. Instead of asking the LLM to rely only on the static knowledge it learned during pre-training, RAG lets it pull up-to-date passages from an external corpus (vector DB, search index, CRM, etc.) at inference time and weave those snippets into its answer.

"RAG sharply cuts hallucinations, but the moment your specs database drifts or a dealer feed goes down, the agent’s credibility tanks. The real competitive moat will be rigorous data governance and SLOs around every upstream system, not the LLM brand you pick"
Krzysztof Niksinski Devops / Infrastructure / Security / Machine Learning Engineer, Reffine.
ernie byd AI use

What happens in the background


Natural-language RAG

What it does: Parses “Which BYD has the longest range but fits a city garage?” and returns live specs/promotions.

Business impact: Instant, factual answers = lower bounce


Immersive “Compare / Configure / Test-Drive” UI

What it does: Splits results into three swipable panes.

Business impact: Keeps shoppers in-flow; boosts time-on-page.


Multi-round context memory

What it does: Tracks dialogue (“need 7-seater by August”) and offers nearest dealer.

Business impact: Pushes high-intent leads (with geo) straight to CRM.


Tool calling

What it does: Map, gallery & coupon/CRM APIs via Baidu Agent Orchestrator

Business impact: Removes clicks between research & action.


Learning loop

What it does: Nightly session logs flow into BYD CRM; unknown Qs become new FAQ items by morning.

Business impact: Coverage gaps close in hours, not weeks.

"What impresses me is not just the agent’s conversion rate but its maintainability: nightly log re-ingestion turns unknown questions into FAQs by morning. That kind of zero-touch content ops used to take weeks of CMS work; now it’s an automated pull request."
Krzysztof Niksinski Devops / Infrastructure / Security / Machine Learning Engineer, Reffine.
"Intelligent agents are the dominant form of AI applications, and their breakout moment is just around the corner."
Robin Li CEO, Baidu US


In short, this isn’t “just a chatbot on a website.” In some way it replaces the role of the homepage, trading fewer site visits for more qualified sales leads.

The 119 % uplift isn’t about flashy chat bubbles - it’s about closing the loop between retrieval-augmented generation, Baidu’s tool-calling APIs and BYD’s CRM. When every query inside the search box can surface live stock, book a test-drive and write directly into the sales stack, the classic ‘homepage funnel’ becomes optional, adds Krzysztof Niksinski.

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