Ant International Unveils AI-Powered Travel Companion for Digital Wallets

Ant International launches AI travel companion for digital wallets

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Alipay+ Voyager combines Ant International's agentic AI capabilities with the galaxy of cross-border travel services offered by OTA partners and 100 million global merchants in Alipay+'s partner ecosystem. Through its one single AI interface embedded in e-wallets and super apps, Alipay+ Voyager assists travellers, via text or voice in their local language, to complete itinerary planning, booking, and purchasing in-destination merchant offerings with a seamless flow. Alipay+ Voyager is first launched on three of Asia's biggest mobile wallets, Alipay (Chinese mainland), AlipayHK (Hong Kong SAR, China) and GCash (the Philippines) ahead of the summer travel peak. It will roll out to more Alipay+ payment partners throughout 2025. Alipay+, started as a cross-border payment technology solution, now helping 36 leading e-wallets and payment apps with 1.7 billion consumer accounts connect to over 100 million merchants. The Alipay+ Wallet Tech team has been working with e-wallet partners in emerging markets to develop payment, security and growth capabilities and solutions since 2015. Today, the team plans to further build out other agentic AI suites for different industries on Alipay+ GenAI Cockpit, its main AI platform for fintechs. Driving Global Connectivity and Growth in the Merchant-Wallet-Consumer Ecosystem The online travel market is expected to grow 10% annually through 2032, with mobile already making up two-thirds of traffic. Travellers, especially Gen Zs, increasingly favour unique, hyperlocal experiences, using mobile-first, all-in-one solutions to uncover their best options. Alipay+ Voyager has a number of distinct features: * Intelligent end-to-end assistance from one single hub in familiar wallets: research, decision and action support before, during and after the trip * Real-time global-to-local connections: seamless transitioning to local services like ride-hailing, public transport, shopping, dining and sightseeing; * Purposeful, forward-looking curation: Voyager AI intuitively understands a user's preferences, proactively solves problems when there are issues such as flight delays or bad weather, and surfaces hyper-relevant options in real-time before a traveller even asks, all within their home e-wallet; * A new growth gateway for merchants and OTAs: captures multiple core markets through one easy deployment across the largest regional and global e-wallets. "Travellers today are using more tech to enhance their trips, and there is a need for the industry to adapt and meet these new and emerging expectations," said Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International. "By integrating a proactive, always-on AI travel companion within digital wallets that consumers already use frequently, we're empowering travel and wallet partners with new opportunities to engage travellers in a more relevant, personalised way, through every step of their journey." Gil Hazan, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Agoda, said: "At Agoda, we are committed to making travel more accessible and seamless for everyone. By integrating our extensive supply network as one of Asia's leading online travel platforms with Alipay+ Voyager's expansive wallet partnerships, we can offer travellers a more convenient and personalized booking experience. This collaboration enables us to reach a broader audience and provide tailored travel solutions that cater to the diverse needs of today's travellers."

Ant International Launches 'AI Travel Companion' Integrated Into Digital Wallets | PYMNTS.com

Alipay+ Voyager was introduced on three mobile wallets in Asia -- Alipay, AlipayHK and GCash -- and will roll out to more Alipay+ payment partners throughout the year, the company said in a Wednesday (July 2) press release. This tool provides an AI interface embedded in eWallets and super apps that helps travelers complete their itinerary planning, booking and purchases of in-destination merchant offerings, according to the release. It provides travelers help with research and actions before during and after their trip; connects to local services like ride-hailing, public transport, shopping, dining and sightseeing; and surfaces relevant options when the travel encounters issues like flight delays or bad weather, the release said. Alipay+ Voyager is powered by a combination of Ant International's agentic AI capabilities and the cross-border travel services offered by online travel agency (OTA) partners and global merchants in the Alipay+ partner ecosystem, per the release. It operates via text or voice in the user's local language. Ant International President Douglas Feagin said in the release that Alipay+ Voyager helps the travel industry meet consumers' expectations that technology can enhance their trips. "By integrating a proactive, always-on AI travel companion within digital wallets that consumers already use frequently, we're empowering travel and wallet partners with new opportunities to engage travelers in a more relevant, personalized way, through every step of their journey." It was reported in May 2024 that Alipay+ was looking to expand as eWallet use grows. "What we found is that people want to use their home eWallets when they travel abroad," Feagin told CNBC at the time. "So they don't want to have to load their card into another app that they don't know as well." Alipay+ was launched in 2020 to allow visitors to China to use apps from their home countries to make payments, and Feagin sees a "huge opportunity" to replicate this offering in other regions, according to the CNBC report.