Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is ramping up its consumer AI ambitions as it works to turn its chatbot into a central hub for everyday digital services.
Alibaba Pushes Qwen Toward a One-Stop AI Assistant
Alibaba is accelerating its push into consumer-facing artificial intelligence by deeply integrating its Qwen AI app with the company’s core services.
It aims to turn the chatbot into a single entry point for shopping, travel, payments, and everyday tasks.
The Chinese e-commerce juggernaut plans to link Taobao, Alipay, travel platform Fliggy, and mapping service Amap directly to Qwen, marking its most ambitious step yet to position the app as a one-stop AI assistant.
The integration, which has entered public testing in China, allows Qwen’s more than 100 million users to complete tasks such as ordering food, booking trips, and making payments without switching between multiple apps, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
For now, full in-app transactions are supported mainly for food delivery, with broader shopping categories still being integrated.
Early Use Cases Show Promise, With Limits
At a launch event in Hangzhou, Alibaba executives demonstrated Qwen completing real-world tasks, including recommending a robot vacuum cleaner and booking flights, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Early tests showed the app could handle basic recommendations and payments, though it still struggled with some functions, such as generating direct product links for certain shopping requests.
Alibaba introduced Qwen in November as a major move into consumer AI and has steadily expanded its capabilities.
The company has also rolled out an invite-only “task assistant” that can perform more complex actions, such as making phone calls or processing large volumes of documents.
Open-Source Strategy And Long-Term AI Bet
Alibaba aims to weave its multiple consumer services—including e-commerce, travel, payments, streaming, and food delivery—into a unified AI-driven experience.
Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu has pledged more than $53 billion toward infrastructure and AI development, an amount he has said could rise over time. While Alibaba’s open-source Qwen models have gained traction—downloads exceeded 700 million on Hugging Face in early January—Bloomberg Intelligence cautioned that near-term profitability from AI may remain limited, particularly in the cloud business.
Alibaba stock gained over 106% in the last 12 months, driven by its cloud unit endeavours and a favourable domestic regulatory regime.
The company is moving to unlock more value from its AI strategy by doubling down on open-source development as adoption of its Qwen models accelerates and investor confidence in its long-term AI position improves.
BABA Price Action: Alibaba Gr Hldgs shares were down 0.33% at $169.34 during premarket trading on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo by Poetra.RH via Shutterstock
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