Alibaba's Qwen App now orders food and books travel as AI shifts from understanding to action

Alibaba upgrades Qwen app to order food, book travel

BEIJING, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Alibaba (9988.HK), opens new tab on Thursday launched significant upgrades to its Qwen artificial intelligence app, saying it could now execute tasks such as order food delivery and make travel bookings as it more aggressively pushes into consumer-facing AI. The new features, now in public testing in China, enable users to complete such tasks entirely within the AI chat interface, without switching between applications. The upgrade comes two months after Alibaba's major upgrade on the Qwen App as part of a strategic pivot into consumer-facing AI, an area where it had previously lagged domestic rivals ByteDance and Tencent while focusing primarily on enterprise AI services through its cloud business. "What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act -- deeply connected to real-world services," said Wu Jia, Vice President of Alibaba Group. AI agents are growing in popularity worldwide as companies seek to use AI to aid real-world tasks. Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab acquired startup Manus last month to improve its AI systems that can complete multi-step tasks, while OpenAI has rolled out its "Operator" agent that can book restaurants and fill out forms on behalf of users. The upgrade integrates core Alibaba ecosystem services including e-commerce platform Taobao, instant commerce, payment system Alipay, travel service Fliggy and mapping platform Amap into a unified AI interface. By integrating Alipay with the Qwen app, for instance, users can authorise and complete transactions without leaving the conversation. The AI payment feature currently supports instant commerce orders and will expand to additional services over time, Alibaba said. The company also unveiled a "Task Assistant" feature in invite-only beta that can make real phone calls to restaurants, process up to 100 documents simultaneously and plan multi-stop travel itineraries. Since its public beta launch on November 17, Qwen App has surpassed 100 million monthly active users within two months, according to the statement. Powered by Alibaba's Qwen3 foundation model, the expansion reflects broader competition in China's AI sector, where companies are racing to translate advanced language models into practical consumer applications. Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Stephen Coates Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Artificial Intelligence Brenda Goh Thomson Reuters Brenda Goh is Reuters' Shanghai bureau chief and oversees coverage of corporates in China. Brenda joined Reuters as a trainee in London in 2010 and has reported stories from over a dozen countries.

Chinese tech giants enter the 'agentic commerce' race as AI reshapes super apps

China's technology giants are entering a new phase of the artificial intelligence race called 'agentic commerce,' as firms such as Alibaba and ByteDance race to turn chatbots into full-service shopping and payment tools. Alibaba last week updated its Qwen AI chatbot, allowing users to complete transactions directly within the interface, including ordering food and booking air tickets. The upgrade connects Qwen to Alibaba's broader e-commerce ecosystem, allowing users to compare tailored product recommendations from platforms such as Taobao or its travel site Fliggy, before finally completing payments through Alipay, all without leaving the chatbot. Previously, Qwen could make recommendations based on user-generated prompts, but users still had to manually navigate multiple platforms to make purchases. The update reflects a broader shift among some global artificial intelligence firms from a focus on foundational AI models to "agentic AI", which performs tasks on behalf of users with limited supervision. "The agentic transformation of commercial services enables the maximal integration of user services [and] enhances user stickiness," Shaochen Wang, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, referring to stronger long-term user engagement. That allows companies to build a sustainable competitive advantage, often called a business moat, which helps protect profits from competitors, he added. While commercial applications for agentic AI are expected to range from autonomous driving to cybersecurity, e-commerce is emerging as one of its earliest and most pervasive use cases, with payment and tech giants in the U.S. also rolling out their first iterations in recent months. Within China, Alibaba is well-positioned to be a pioneer in agentic commerce due to its advanced large language model capabilities and its extensive e-commerce network covering clothing, food, housing, and transportation, Wang said.

Alibaba upgrades Qwen app to order food, book travel

The new features, now in public testing in China, enable users to complete such tasks entirely within the AI chat interface, without switching between applications. Alibaba on Thursday launched significant upgrades to its Qwen artificial intelligence app, saying it could now execute tasks such as order ⁠food delivery and make travel bookings as it more aggressively pushes into consumer-facing AI. The new features, now in public testing in China, enable users to complete such tasks entirely within the AI chat interface, without switching between applications. The upgrade comes two months after Alibaba's major upgrade on the Qwen App as part of a strategic pivot into consumer-facing AI, an area where it had previously lagged domestic rivals ByteDance and Tencent while focusing primarily on enterprise AI services through its cloud business. "What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act-deeply connected to real-world services," said Wu Jia, Vice President of Alibaba Group. AI agents are growing in popularity worldwide as companies seek to use AI to aid real-world tasks. Meta Platforms acquired startup Manus last month to improve its AI systems that can complete multi-step tasks, while OpenAI has rolled out its "Operator" agent that can book restaurants and fill out forms on behalf of users. The upgrade integrates core Alibaba ecosystem services including e-commerce platform Taobao, instant commerce, payment system Alipay, travel service Fliggy and mapping platform Amap into a unified AI interface. By integrating Alipay with the Qwen app, for instance, users can authorise and complete transactions without leaving the conversation. The AI payment feature currently supports instant commerce orders and will expand to additional ⁠services over time, Alibaba ⁠said. The company also unveiled a "Task Assistant" feature in invite-only beta that can make real phone calls to restaurants, process up to 100 documents simultaneously and plan multi-stop travel itineraries. Since its public beta launch on November 17, Qwen App has surpassed 100 million monthly active users within two months, according to the statement. Powered by Alibaba's Qwen3 foundation model, the expansion reflects broader competition in China's AI sector, where companies are racing to translate advanced language models into practical consumer applications.

Alibaba Adds Agentic and Payments Capabilities to Consumer AI App | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. With new features that are now available for public testing in China, Qwen App can order food, complete in-chat payments, call and book travel, and call restaurants, Alibaba said in a Thursday (Jan. 15) press release. Each of these end-to-end actions can be set in motion by a single voice or text request from the user, according to the release. These features are enabled by the app's integration with other parts of the Alibaba ecosystem, including Taobao, Taobao Instant Commerce, Alipay, Fliggy and Amap, the release said. Through Taobao Instant Commerce, Qwen App can place food and beverage orders, apply promotions and complete payments, per the release. Through Fliggy, it can design travel itineraries, compare options and complete bookings. Through Taobao, the app can complete purchases of products the user discovered through the conversational interface of the Qwen App. A new direct integration of Qwen App with Alipay enables native AI payment so that when the user gives explicit confirmation, the app can complete transactions without leaving the conversation, according to the release. This AI payment capability is now available for Taobao Instant Commerce and will later be expanded to other services, per the release. Alibaba Group Vice President Wu Jia said in the release that the company is building an app that can free users from having to perform repetitive tasks and can become "an intelligent assistant they can rely on." "What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act -- deeply connected to real-world services," Wu said. "Qwen App is Alibaba's approach to the next era of applications: not just powerful, but genuinely useful in everyday life." Qwen App was released in November and gained 100 million monthly active users in its first two months, per the release. It was reported in September that Alibaba's AI investments could make it one of the world's biggest companies. The firm had invested over $14 billion in AI infrastructure and research over the previous year, and it planned to spend $53.42 billion in AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years.

Alibaba upgrades Qwen app to order food, book travel

BEIJING, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Alibaba on Thursday launched significant upgrades to its Qwen artificial intelligence app, saying it could now execute tasks such as order food delivery and make travel bookings as it more aggressively pushes into consumer-facing AI. The new features, now in public testing in China, enable users to complete such tasks entirely within the AI chat interface, without switching between applications. The upgrade comes two months after Alibaba's major upgrade on the Qwen App as part of a strategic pivot into consumer-facing AI, an area where it had previously lagged domestic rivals ByteDance and Tencent while focusing primarily on enterprise AI services through its cloud business. "What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act--deeply connected to real-world services," said Wu Jia, Vice President of Alibaba Group. AI agents are growing in popularity worldwide as companies seek to use AI to aid real-world tasks. Meta Platforms acquired startup Manus last month to improve its AI systems that can complete multi-step tasks, while OpenAI has rolled out its "Operator" agent that can book restaurants and fill out forms on behalf of users. The upgrade integrates core Alibaba ecosystem services including e-commerce platform Taobao, instant commerce, payment system Alipay, travel service Fliggy and mapping platform Amap into a unified AI interface. By integrating Alipay with the Qwen app, for instance, users can authorise and complete transactions without leaving the conversation. The AI payment feature currently supports instant commerce orders and will expand to additional services over time, Alibaba said. The company also unveiled a "Task Assistant" feature in invite-only beta that can make real phone calls to restaurants, process up to 100 documents simultaneously and plan multi-stop travel itineraries. Since its public beta launch on November 17, Qwen App has surpassed 100 million monthly active users within two months, according to the statement. Powered by Alibaba's Qwen3 foundation model, the expansion reflects broader competition in China's AI sector, where companies are racing to translate advanced language models into practical consumer applications. (Reporting by Liam Mo and Brenda Goh; Editing by Stephen Coates)