NANJING, CHINA – NOVEMBER 25: Aerial view of Alibaba Jiangsu headquarters on November 25, 2025 in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China. (Photo by Fang Dongxu/VCG via Getty Images)
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China’s tech giants are entering a new phase of the artificial intelligence race known as “agency commerce,” with firms such as Alibaba and ByteDance racing to turn chatbots into full-service commerce and payment tools.
Alibaba last week Qwen has updated its AI chatbotallows users to complete transactions directly within the interface, including ordering food and booking airline tickets.
The update integrates Qwen into Alibaba’s wider e-commerce ecosystem, allowing users to compare tailored product offers on platforms such as Taobao or its travel site Fliggy, before ultimately completing payments through Alipay, all without leaving the chatbot.
Previously, Qwen could make recommendations based on user-generated queries, but users had to manually navigate multiple platforms to make a purchase.
The update reflects a broader shift by some global AI firms from a focus on basic AI models to “agent AI” that performs tasks on behalf of users with limited oversight.
“Agency transformation of commercial services enables maximum integration of user services (and) increases user stickiness,” said Shaochen Wang, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, referring to long-term active user engagement.
This allows companies to build a sustainable competitive advantage, often called a business funnel, that helps protect profits from competitors, he added.
While commercial applications for agency AI are expected to range from autonomous driving to cybersecurity, e-commerce is emerging as one of its earliest and most widespread use cases, with payments and tech giants in the US. release their first iterations in recent months.
In China, Alibaba is well-positioned to pioneer agency commerce with its expanded large-language model capabilities and extensive e-commerce network that includes apparel, food, housing and transportation, Wang said.
Increasing global competition
Alibaba’s strategy could help it compete with rival super apps such as Tencent’s WeChat, recognized as China’s leading “super app” that combines messaging, payments, e-commerce and other services into a single platform used by more than 1 billion users.
Other Chinese firms are also moving quickly.
In December, ByteDance updated its popular Doubao AI chatbot to autonomously perform tasks such as booking tickets through integration with e-commerce features on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
The updated Doubao model was presented in a prototype smartphone developed by ZTE Corp as a versatile AI assistant able to perform tasks through the user’s mobile device. However, Some of the planned features of Dubai was later reduced after competitors raised privacy and security concerns.
Tencent President Martin Lau said this at the company’s meeting May 2025 earnings call AI agents may become key components of the WeChat ecosystem.
“AI agents will be at the core of the evolution of super apps that will succeed because of the deep integration between payments, logistics and social connections,” Charlie Dye, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, told CNBC.
I like Chinese companies Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance are competing to embed agents into their platforms, all benefiting from integrated ecosystems, rich behavioral data and consumer familiarity with super apps, Dye said.
Western companies, while leading AI models and global reach, face stricter data fragmentation and privacy regulations, slowing cross-service integration, he added.
The agency is trading US players like OpenAI, Perplexity and Amazon. Google also explores ways of positioning oneself asmatch“Between Merchants, Consumers and AI Agents.
“China prioritizes domestic integration and strategic expansion in selected regions, while US firms focus on global scaling and management,” Dai said.
According to A, about half of all consumers use AI when searching online 2025 McKinsey study.
The report estimated that AI agents could create more than $1 trillion in economic value for U.S. businesses by 2030 by streamlining critical but mundane steps in consumer decision-making.