Ant Group eyes AI agent update in Alipay: Bloomberg

Alibaba (9988)-affiliated Ant Group is reportedly testing to introduce the artificial intelligence agent interface to its Alipay App, a move that highlights the intensified competition among China's tech giants over AI agent deployment,  according to Bloomberg.

The new updates enable users to command Alipay's new AI assistant, Ah Bao, to handle everyday tasks like booking a car ride and ordering coffee via text or voice, the report said, adding that the AI assistant can even execute wealth-management functions such as purchasing mutual funds with user authorization.

The launch date for the new Alipay version has not been set yet, as it is still in the internal testing phase, according to the report.

Similarly, Tencent (0700) has also jumped on the bandwagon, with a test on integrating a prototype AI agent into WeChat, which owns over 1 billion monthly active users. 

Deploying AI agents to execute complex tasks on behalf of users has become the primary battleground for Chinese tech firms. 

Since the country embraced the OpenClaw framework this year, AI agents' convenience for daily life has rapidly become the focus in China, which can perform tasks from sending emails to analyzing financial data.

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