Alipay's AI Strategy: Entrance Access Can Be Conceded, But Payment Core Cannot Be Abandoned

Following WeChat's official announcement of the internal test of its AI intelligent agent, Alipay has also begun its AI transformation.

On June 14, 2026, according to a report by Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Ant Group is secretly testing an AI version of Alipay. It will introduce an Agent assistant named "Abao", which can help users hail a taxi, order takeout, and even perform financial tasks such as buying funds.

As AI technology matures, not only Ant Group but also many technology companies are stepping up their efforts in Agent. However, it should be noted that since Agent assistants have a strong entry attribute, most enterprises focus on a single product to avoid resource dispersion and overlapping positioning.

In contrast, Alibaba has developed AI assistants such as Qianwen, Lingguang, and Quark. Now, it is actively promoting the integration of Alipay with Agent, which seems extremely abnormal.

This is, of course, because Alibaba has a large business portfolio, and many of its products are designed to meet different user needs and application scenarios. On the other hand, it is also directly related to the differentiated product characteristics of Alipay. As a payment tool, Alipay is highly compatible with the transaction needs generated by the implementation of Agent, so targeted layout is required.

Lacking a social relationship chain, Alipay craves new technologies to break the deadlock

Since Alibaba's e - commerce business is closer to the payment link, Alipay has a strong first - mover advantage. In the early days of the mobile Internet boom, it became one of the leading third - party payment platforms in China. Data from iResearch shows that in 2014, Alipay had an 82.8% market share in China's Internet third - party payment market, ranking first.

According to this trend, Alipay would most likely become the dominant player in China's mobile payment market. However, during the Spring Festival in 2015, WeChat Pay launched a "surprise attack" by allowing users to grab 500 million yuan in cash red envelopes through the "Shake" function, which significantly diverted Alipay's market influence.

Source: iResearch

iResearch data shows that in 2015, Alipay's market share in China's Internet third - party payment market dropped to 47.5%, while Tencent Tenpay's market share rose to 20%.

In order to counter WeChat Pay, Alipay has successively launched differentiated services such as the Five - Fortune Collection, Ant Forest, and "Tap to Pay" in recent years, and has frequently launched large - scale marketing activities. Although these services and activities have increased Alipay's user stickiness to some extent, they have not changed the competitive landscape of China's Internet third - party payment market.

Data disclosed by the China Payment and Clearing Association shows that in terms of transaction volume, in 2024, Alipay had a 45.7% market share and WeChat Pay had a 41.8% market share in China's Internet third - party payment market, and the two are at a similar level.

Source: Alipay

It should be noted that since the birth of WeChat Red Envelopes, WeChat has not launched any new payment forms for many years and still mainly relies on QR code payment, which has a far inferior user experience compared to Alipay's "Tap to Pay".

The reason why WeChat Pay has strong vitality is mainly because it relies on WeChat's large social relationship chain, which can be deeply integrated with users' daily communication scenarios, naturally having a higher frequency of use and user stickiness.

In contrast, Alipay is only positioned as a "wallet", with relatively single usage scenarios, so it is naturally difficult to compete with WeChat Pay in terms of user activity and usage frequency.

However, precisely because it cannot rely on the social relationship chain like WeChat Pay, Alipay has always maintained a strong sense of crisis and innovation drive. As AI technology matures, Alipay has finally found a new area of focus.

In the AI era, Alipay and WeChat meet again on a narrow path

As Jensen Huang, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, said, "Agentic AI has arrived. Computers no longer run applications but AI Agents." To create higher user value, since 2025, technology companies have been promoting the upgrade of their AI assistants from chatbots that "can chat" to Agents that "can do things".

Source: Xiaohongshu

According to a report by Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, the AI version of Alipay will revolutionize the original interaction system. It can directly enter the native AI interface with one click and achieve intelligent management from services to funds through the Agent assistant named "Abao".

When using it, users can have a natural language conversation with "Abao" and issue instructions such as hailing a taxi, ordering coffee, and ordering takeout. After obtaining user authorization, "Abao" can even complete financial tasks such as selecting funds and managing investment accounts.

It is worth noting that since Agent contains huge commercial value, currently not only Alipay is undergoing AI transformation, but WeChat is also actively increasing its efforts in AI intelligent agents.

Source: WeChat Developers

On June 8, 2026, the official WeChat account of WeChat Developers released Guidelines for Developers to Access the WeChat AI Ecosystem, confirming that WeChat AI has started its internal test.

The Financial Times quoted an informed source as saying that the WeChat Agent will be hidden on the left side of the main WeChat chat interface and can be accessed by swiping right. After users issue specific instructions in natural language, the intelligent agent can call WeChat mini - programs to perform corresponding tasks.

Although the product forms are highly similar, there are significant differences in the ecological resources of Alipay and WeChat. Data disclosed by Aladdin Research Institute shows that as of Q1 2026, the total number of mini - programs across the Chinese Internet was about 12 million, of which about 8.4 million were WeChat mini - programs, accounting for 70%, and about 1.8 million were Alipay mini - programs, accounting for only 15%.

Source: QuestMobile

When interviewed by LatePost, a WeChat employee said that WeChat's natural advantage in Agent lies in the highly prosperous mini - program ecosystem. "Most of these developers are unlikely to have the motivation to go to a new platform, sign a new agreement, and build a new system."

Obviously, although we have entered a new AI era, since the ability boundaries of Agent are closely related to mobile Internet ecological resources, Alipay still needs to face systemic shortcomings.

Considering that the core demand of users for using Agent is not simply to obtain information but to efficiently complete specific tasks, the insufficient ecological capabilities mean that Alipay Agent will be difficult to compete with WeChat in the short term.

Beyond the entry point, AI "infrastructure" has greater strategic value

Due to its strong "wallet" attribute, Alipay has not placed all its bets on the competition for the Agent entry point. Instead, as a service provider, it has actively launched AI payment solutions such as AI Pay, AI Collection, and Token Pay.

Source: Alipay

At the AI Payment Ecosystem Conference held at the end of May 2026, Han Xinyi, the CEO of Ant Group, said, "In the AI era, the essence of business remains unchanged, but the new role of intelligent agents reconstructs everything. With 22 years of technological accumulation and business know - how, Alipay is building a new AI payment service to help accelerate the development of the new business ecosystem."

In short, Alipay not only wants to become the core entry point in the AI era by focusing on Agent but also hopes to become the payment "infrastructure" in the AI era by meeting the transaction needs of intelligent agents.

For example, currently, Alipay's AI payment supports 95% of general intelligent agent frameworks, covering products such as AI assistants, smart devices, and smart cockpits. As of May 2026, Alipay has completed 300 million AI payment transactions.

From the perspective of AI technology evolution, Alipay's choice is quite insightful. At present, the product form, interaction mode, and ecological pattern of Agent are not yet finalized, and the competition for the AI entry point is still full of uncertainties. In contrast, payment, as one of the most basic service capabilities in the digital economy, has stronger certainty and irreplaceability.

As Agent matures, users may not actively choose a specific payment tool but directly issue tasks to the intelligent agent, which will automatically complete the processes of screening, placing orders, and making payments.

In this context, the platform that becomes the underlying payment infrastructure for Agent first has a better chance of getting the "ticket" to the AI era. Therefore, Alipay's early positioning as the payment "infrastructure" shows strong foresight.

Source: Honor

In fact, not only Alipay but also WeChat has recognized the important strategic value of AI "infrastructure". Recently, in addition to testing Agent within its platform, WeChat has also cooperated with smartphone manufacturers such as Huawei, Honor, and Xiaomi to support A2A interconnection. The AI assistants of mobile phone systems can directly call WeChat to send messages.

It should be noted that in order to maintain its core asset of the social relationship chain, WeChat has rarely opened its key capabilities to external platforms in the past and has even frequently blocked products that "cross the line".

A typical example is Doubao Mobile. Since it can control software through GUI simulation click technology, it was "blocked" by WeChat a few days after its launch.

Facing the Agent era, WeChat's active support for A2A interconnection shows that it not only wants to be an entry point but also hopes to embed its social relationship chain, which has been accumulated over more than a decade, into the Agent cooperation network. In this way, no matter which Agent tool users use to perform tasks, WeChat has the opportunity to continue to play the core role of connecting people and people, and people and services.

Source: WeChat

After understanding the strategic value of AI "infrastructure", WeChat's A2A interconnection has not only extended to social aspects but also to payment. In April 2026, WeChat Pay released the "AI Access Toolbox", which includes three core modules: Skill packages, AI - friendly documents, and AI - friendly APIs, to facilitate developers to connect AI products to WeChat Pay.

It can be seen that as Alipay and WeChat Pay have successively focused on AI payment "infrastructure", they have become competitors again. However, due to its first - mover advantage and strong payment attribute, Alipay has a relatively active position in the competition for payment "infrastructure".

In the future, it remains to be seen which of Alipay and WeChat Pay will become the payment infrastructure in the AI era. However, it is certain that as Agent takes over more and more transaction and service processes, the platform that controls the underlying payment tools will have stronger long - term competitiveness than the platform that simply occupies the traffic entry point.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Farsight", author: Farsight Team. Republished by 36Kr with permission.