China's Meituan Opens Errand Ordering System to Multiple AI Assistants

(Yicai) May 27 -- Meituan has launched Errand Skill, allowing customers to use various third-party artificial intelligence assistants to place orders on the Chinese internet giant's new Errand ordering system.By opening errand-ordering capabilities to the AI assistant ecosystem in the form of a packaged Skill, Meituan has made the service a standardized function that AI can directly access, the company announced yesterday. Users can issue a command to functional AI assistants to place an errand order without having to open the Meituan application, it noted.In terms of user coverage, long-term and stable usage depends on the widespread adoption and use of Claw, a person from Meituan told Yicai. Regarding the integration of AI and consumer-end apps, with AI assistants becoming more prevalent and their features increasingly sophisticated, users will be able to place orders directly through such tools without entering other apps, the person added.Meituan opening up its Erand Skill to third-party AI assistants signals how AI capabilities are being commercialized through consumer-end businesses, said Zhang Yi, chief executive officer of iiMedia Research. The move is not about exporting underlying AI models, but rather modularizing the AI capabilities behind mature operations such as task scheduling and order placing, embedding them into mainstream AI assistants to rapidly transform tech value into consumer scenarios, Zhang pointed out.AI+C-end business can help Meituan strengthen its competitiveness, but there is still a gap before forming a competitive edge, Zhang said. The firm's rivals include Alibaba Group Holding's instant delivery system, which is backed by its e-commerce ecosystem, and ByteDance's ecosystem, which features intelligent fulfillment and AI assistants, Zhang noted.Editor: Martin Kadiev