At a recent event, Chinese online payments giant Alipay launched what it describes as China’s first full-stack agentic commerce platform with the goal of making agentic AI the primary interface between consumers and merchants.
At its AI Ecosystem Partner Conference in Hangzhou this week, the company unveiled a set of AI tools it says are tailored for merchants at different stages of digital maturity. Businesses without existing AI capabilities can convert webpages, product catalogs and service workflows into agent-ready Skills and Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, while organizations already using AI can build and manage agents, orchestrate tasks, and improve functions such as customer insights, product recommendations and loyalty programs.
The launch builds on Ah Bao, Alipay’s conversational AI service introduced in June. The company says the agent now provides access to more than 10,000 services, including utility payments, EV charging and food ordering. As of August, Ah Bao has been integrated with five smartphone brands representing more than 70 percent of the market and 16 automakers. Partnerships announced in recent months include StepFun and OPPO, allowing users to complete multi-step tasks such as locating EV chargers, ordering coffee or purchasing movie tickets through natural-language conversations.
The new platform connects merchants to the Ah Bao ecosystem through the company’s AHA protocol, enabling services to operate across AI agents and devices, including smartphones, connected vehicles and AI glasses. Alipay said the platform also incorporates AI payments, identity verification, risk management and service fulfillment.
Cyril Han, CEO of Alipay’s parent company Ant Group, said the company expects rapid adoption of agentic commerce over the coming year.
“Agentic commerce is poised for rapid growth over the next 6 to 12 months,” Han said. “AI agents will become a new interface connecting hundreds of millions of users with tens of millions of merchants, unlocking a new intent-driven commercial ecosystem.”
To encourage adoption, Alipay also introduced an AI Business Incentive Program that includes free AI tokens, transaction-based token subsidies and reduced payment processing fees for developers and merchants.