Silicon Valley keeps talking about AI agents that can shop for you. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) (OTC: BABAF) may already be testing what that future looks like.
During a two-week Lunar New Year campaign promoting its Qwen AI app, Alibaba said the system handled nearly 200 million orders ranging from groceries and drinks to movie tickets and flights, The Information reported. Morgan Stanley analysts said the push helped drive Qwen's daily active users to 73.5 million, up from about 17 million before the holiday.
For an industry still experimenting with AI assistants that can complete real transactions, the scale is striking.
The AI Shopping Race
U.S. tech giants are racing toward the same goal - but they're still in earlier stages.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been rolling out Rufus, a generative-AI shopping assistant embedded in its app that can answer product questions, compare items and recommend purchases using Amazon's product catalog.
The company has also added AI features like Lens Live, which lets users point their phone camera at real-world objects and instantly find similar items to buy on Amazon.
Meanwhile, OpenAI has been experimenting with turning ChatGPT into a shopping assistant through partnerships with merchants on platforms like Etsy, Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) and Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) and a system called Instant Checkout that allows purchases directly inside chat.
But the effort is still evolving. Reports suggest OpenAI has recently scaled back plans for widespread in-chat checkout as the company works through technical and merchant-integration challenges.
Alibaba's Ecosystem Advantage
Alibaba's biggest advantage may be structural.
Unlike many Western tech companies experimenting with AI shopping, Alibaba already controls many of the pieces needed to complete transactions - from the Taobao marketplace to Alipay payments, travel platform Fliggy, mapping service Amap, and ticketing app Damai.
The system still isn't seamless. Qwen sometimes produces buying guides instead of directing users to specific Taobao listings, and deeper integration with Alibaba's vast product catalog is still underway.
But the broader direction is clear. If AI agents become the primary interface for online activity, the companies whose assistants can actually complete purchases - not just suggest products - may end up controlling the next gateway to digital commerce.