（Singapore, 15.01.2026）Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has taken a significant step in its consumer artificial intelligence strategy by linking its core shopping, payment and travel services directly to its flagship AI application, Qwen. The move signals the company’s strongest effort yet to turn Qwen into an all-in-one digital assistant that can help users complete real-world tasks, rather than just answer questions.
Starting Thursday, Alibaba began public testing in China of new features that connect Qwen with several of its most important platforms, including Taobao, Alipay, Fliggy, and Amap. Through these integrations, users can shop, order food, book flights and hotels, and complete payments without leaving the AI chat interface.
Alibaba’s goal is to transform Qwen into a single gateway for everyday digital activities, supported by artificial intelligence that can recommend products, compare options, place orders and handle transactions. The company said the upgrade is available for public testing, with more functions to be added over time.
The initiative highlights a broader global push toward so-called “agentic AI,” where artificial intelligence systems do more than generate text and instead carry out tasks on behalf of users. Technology companies worldwide are exploring this direction, including Amazon.com Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc.. In China, firms like Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd., which already operate large “super apps,” are seen as having a natural advantage.
Alibaba launched the Qwen app in November as its main entry into consumer-facing AI, after years of focusing primarily on enterprise services through its cloud business. Since then, the company has steadily expanded its capabilities. Beyond shopping and travel, Alibaba has also introduced an invite-only “Task Assistant” feature designed to handle more complex jobs, such as making phone calls to restaurants, planning multi-stop travel itineraries, or processing large numbers of documents.
Executives demonstrated the new Qwen functions on Thursday by walking through everyday scenarios. These included ordering milk tea delivery from a nearby store, searching for a robot vacuum cleaner suitable for a home with a pet, and planning a family vacation to Hainan that involved booking flights and hotels.
Early tests showed that Qwen could already complete basic tasks, such as recommending products that meet dietary preferences and enabling users to pay for food deliveries directly within the app. However, some limitations remain. For example, the system was not always able to generate direct product links for certain shopping requests, suggesting that not all categories are fully integrated yet.
“AI is evolving from intelligence to agency,” said Wu Jia, an Alibaba vice president. “What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act deeply connected to real-world services.”
Alibaba’s push into consumer AI also reflects investor concerns about the commercial returns of artificial intelligence. Globally, companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data centers and computing infrastructure, much of it powered by Nvidia chips. Investors are increasingly focused on whether AI applications can generate sustainable demand and revenue, Bloomberg reported.
Alibaba has positioned itself as one of the most aggressive AI investors in China. Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu has pledged more than US$53 billion toward infrastructure and AI development and has said the total investment could increase over time.
Despite the strategic significance of the announcement, Alibaba’s shares fell as much as 3.5% in Hong Kong trading on Thursday, after rising nearly 20% over the previous four sessions. Analysts attributed the decline to profit-taking rather than negative sentiment toward the AI update.
“This dip is simply profit-taking, a textbook ‘sell the fact’ after the rally, not a verdict on Qwen app’s latest update,” said Steven Leung, executive director at UOB Kay Hian Hong Kong.
Competition in China’s consumer AI market remains intense. While US services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT are not available in the country, domestic rivals are moving quickly. ByteDance Ltd.’s Doubao app is currently one of the most popular AI applications in China, with about 172 million monthly active users as of late September, according to data from QuestMobile.
Alibaba said Qwen has surpassed 100 million monthly active users within two months of its public beta launch, underlining strong early interest. The app is powered by Alibaba’s Qwen3 foundation model, and the company plans to continue expanding its consumer features while maintaining investment in cloud computing.
Shares of Alibaba have more than doubled since the start of 2025, reflecting growing investor confidence in its AI strategy. Over the longer term, analysts say the market will closely watch how well the company balances spending on AI infrastructure with profitability across its consumer services and cloud operations.
