(Yicai Global) Dec. 10 -- JD Group Vice President Zhou Bowen is to head up the e-commerce giant's technical committee, unveiled today, which will drive the company's technical transformation, according to a report by The Paper.

Dedicated to implementing JD's technology services strategy, the committee will spearhead external tech cooperation and exchanges and work to improve JD's overall technical influence throughout the sector, the report said.

The announcement followed JD setting up its Cloud and Artificial Intelligence division on Dec. 6 through the merger JD Cloud with its AI and Internet of Things operations. Zhou, who will report to JD founder and Chief Executive Richard Liu, also heads this new division, which will give play to the firm's tech advantages in AI, cloud computing, IoT and other fields, as well as offer technical solutions, JD said.

Zhou, a former director of New York-based IBM Research's AI Foundations and chief scientist of the IBM Watson Group, conceived and built JD's NeuHub AI Open Platform after joining the Beijing-based company as the head of its AI division in 2017.

JD hopes to create new revenue growth points through open technical capabilities. Technical services will be an important driving force of revenue and profit growth over the next five years, Liu said at an investor conference in November.