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Alipay launches China’s first full-stack agentic commerce platform for merchants

18 august 2026

Alipay launched China’s first full-stack agentic commerce platform at its AI Ecosystem Partner Conference in Hangzhou, providing merchants with the tools to shift from digital operations to AI-powered operations.

Agentic commerce is poised for rapid growth over the next 6 to 12 months. 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. Through trust, connectivity, and an open ecosystem, Alipay will help build a new generation of AI-powered services and support agentic commerce growth,” said Cyril Han, CEO of Ant Group.

The platform includes a suite of AI business tools that merchants can select independently to meet their specific needs. For merchants with existing digital operations but no AI capabilities, the platform provides a one-stop intelligent solution that turns pages, products, and service workflows into agent-ready Skills and MCP tools, lowering the barrier to AI adoption.

For merchants already with AI-enabled services, the platform supports AI agent creation, skill orchestration, task execution, and operations management to enhance customer insights, product recommendations, and membership operations. It also enables merchants to integrate their services into the broader Ah Bao ecosystem, powered by Alipay’s AHA protocol, which supports cross-agent and cross-device interoperability. Through a single integration with Ah Bao, merchants can extend their reach beyond Alipay users to consumers across smartphones, cars, AI glasses, and AI applications. The platform also integrates Alipay’s capabilities including AI payment, trusted identity, risk management and service fulfilment.

Building on the evolution of mobile payments and digital services in China, Alipay is leveraging Ah Bao as a new gateway to build an emerging agentic ecosystem. Launched in June 2026 by Alipay, Ah Bao is a super service AI agent that enables consumers to access over 10,000 AI-powered everyday services, from paying utility bills and booking pet services to finding EV charging stations, through natural conversations. Retail brands including KFC, Mixue Bingcheng, and Luckin Coffee have also integrated their services into Ah Bao, allowing consumers to place orders and make payments simply by chatting with the AI agent.

As of August 2026, Ah Bao has connected with 5 leading smartphone brands, which together account for over 70% of the market, as well as 16 leading automakers.

As smart devices become increasingly widespread, intelligent services are becoming more contextual, real-time, and universally accessible, with seamless connectivity across devices and AI agents making service entry points available everywhere,” said Jun Li, President of Alipay Business Group. “In the age of AI agents, Alipay will continue to strengthen the infrastructure for industry-wide AI transformation and work with partners to build a thriving agentic commerce ecosystem.”

At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in July, foundation model company StepFun and Alipay announced a system-level partnership powered by AHA that enables users to access AI-powered daily life services through Ah Bao by speaking to the AI agent on StepFun’s AI-native terminal or via its large model.

During a live demonstration at WAIC 2026, a user asked Amoo, an AI agent running on Stepfun’s agentic smartphone StepX Neo, to “find the nearest EV charger and order me a coffee to my home.” Amoo interpreted the user’s intent, planned the optimal solution based on factors such as route and price, and then activated charging and coffee agents on Ah Bao to recommend options and generate a ready-to-confirm order — eliminating the need to switch between multiple apps or platforms.

In the same month, OPPO partnered with Alipay to enable its AI agent Breeno to help OPPO smartphone users access AI-powered daily life services connected by Ah Bao through conversations.

Users can simply tell Breeno what they need, and Breeno will call on Ah Bao to get it done. For example, while watching a short video about a movie, a user can say, “Breeno, buy me a ticket for the movie.” Ah Bao will handle the rest, from selecting the theater and showtime to completing the booking, without the user having to leave the short-video app.

To help individual developers and merchants enter the AI Agent ecosystem at low cost, Alipay also launched an AI Business Incentive Program, offering incentives including 100 million free tokens per user, subsidies for tokens generated through real transactions, and reduced payment fees.

About Alipay

As the world becomes increasingly digital, Alipay has evolved from a trusted e-wallet into an all-in-one digital platform for daily services, connecting more than one billion consumers to over 80 million merchants across China. Alipay offers users a secure, seamless mobile payment experience and integrates over 10,000 services across sectors like travel, healthcare, tourism, and entertainment. With digital tools like Alipay Tap!, mini-programs, lifestyle accounts, Alipay enables merchants, institutions, and independent software vendors (ISVs) to enhance operational efficiency and effectiveness. In addition, Alipay is developing a new AI-driven open platform by integrating AI agents to deliver smarter, more personalized services to its users as well as facilitating the digital transformation of the service sector.

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