--- title: "Alipay and WeChat are accelerating their deployment of smart entity ecosystems. What is the future of AI payment?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/289842172.md" description: "Alipay and WeChat are accelerating the deployment of AI payment ecosystems. Ant Group is testing an AI version of Alipay to establish intelligent services, prioritizing ecosystem growth over immediate commercialization. Simultaneously, Tencent is embedding AI payment capabilities into products like WorkBuddy and QClaw, while opening its AI ecosystem to developers and platforms such as JD.com and Meituan. This shift aims to transition from traditional traffic hubs to intelligent agent ecosystems, with AI payment serving as core infrastructure for autonomous transactions." datetime: "2026-06-16T00:40:00.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/289842172.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/289842172.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/289842172.md) --- # Alipay and WeChat are accelerating their deployment of smart entity ecosystems. What is the future of AI payment? > The expansion of the intelligent agent ecosystem is a prerequisite for AI payment to form a sustainable business model. Author: Tang Jun, reporter for Caijing Payment giants are accelerating the deployment of AI (artificial intelligence) ecosystems. On June 14, multiple media outlets reported that Ant Group is testing an AI version of Alipay. The report states that the new version will revolutionize the original user interaction, allowing users to switch to a native AI interface with one click, achieving intelligent management from services to funds. The release date is currently undetermined. Ant Group told \*Caijing\* that there is no official response to the above information. At the Alipay AI Payment Ecosystem Conference at the end of May this year, the head of Ant Group's AI payment business told the media that Alipay would release a redesign, establishing many intelligent services within the app, launching new products and services, and embedding AI payment capabilities. At that time, Li Jiajia, co-president of Ant Group's Digital Payment Business Group, told \*Caijing\* that Alipay is currently not considering commercialization, revenue, or competition in its AI payment business; it only wants to play the role of AI payment infrastructure and first expand the ecosystem. "When the ecosystem grows large, commercial revenue will naturally follow," Li Jiajia said. One of the key performance indicators for Alipay's AI payment business at this stage is the number of intelligent agent developers on the Agent platform within the ecosystem. Almost simultaneously, Tencent also attempted to embed AI payment capabilities into its AI scenarios. Recently, a Tencent insider told Caijing that WeChat Pay is conducting small-scale testing of its AI payment capabilities in its WorkBuddy and QClaw products, with plans to open it to more AI agent platforms in the future. Leveraging WeChat Pay's AI payment capabilities, users can express their consumption needs in conversations with AI agents, experiencing an automated consumption experience from agent recommendations to order placement and WeChat Pay. WorkBuddy and QClaw are both AI agent consumer-grade products launched by Tencent in early 2026, corresponding to functions such as office document processing and remote operation of instant messaging tools like WeChat and QQ. Previously, there were also rumors in the market that Tencent was undergoing AI-driven transformation of the WeChat app. On June 8th, WeChat's official developer Weibo account released "Guidelines for Developers to Access the AI ​​Ecosystem," announcing that it would provide WeChat Mini Program developers with the ability to access the WeChat AI ecosystem. "WeChat AI" primarily refers to the AI ​​intelligent agents that Tencent is developing and embedding into the WeChat App. Subsequently, internet platforms such as Didi, JD.com, Meituan, and Ctrip announced that they were among the first to access the WeChat AI ecosystem. In the future, users will be able to directly complete daily tasks such as hailing a ride, ordering takeout, and booking hotels through WeChat AI intelligent agents. Behind the AI ​​transformation of Alipay and WeChat lies the ecosystem positioning of payment giants in the era of intelligent agents. At the aforementioned Alipay AI Payment Ecosystem Conference, Ant Group CEO Han Xinyi stated that AI intelligent agents will overturn the "traffic is king" logic of the mobile internet era. In the future, the era of "traffic entrances" determined by humans will end, replaced by an "ecosystem of intelligent agents." The scale and network effects of the intelligent agent ecosystem determine the depth of future business moats. "If the news of the AI ​​version of Alipay being tested is true, this should be the first leading app in China to undergo full-terminal AI transformation. It represents the normal development direction of super apps shifting from a collection of functions to a central hub for intelligent agents, becoming a super entry point for intelligent agents. It's a measure for companies to seize the traffic entry point in the AI ​​era and consolidate their advantages based on technology," Wang Pengbo, a senior financial analyst at Broadcom Consulting, told Caijing. In the new business ecosystem, payment remains a key infrastructure for completing the business loop. "Only when intelligent agents can transact and receive payments will more people be motivated to develop intelligent agents," Li Jiajia previously told the media. The expansion of the intelligent agent ecosystem is also a prerequisite for AI payment to form a sustainable business model. In fact, AI payment has become a core infrastructure for the AI ​​deployment of tech giants. On June 11, JD.com officially released the Agent Autonomous Payment Protocol (A2P2 Protocol), aiming to build a security barrier for AI agent autonomous payment scenarios. A JD.com representative stated that JD.com, relying on its super supply chain and deep integration into segmented markets, covers more than 3,000 scenarios including retail, logistics, healthcare, industry, food delivery, and home services, making it one of the companies with the most AI application scenarios and the strongest industrial depth globally. This year, JD.com's AI-related R&D investment has increased by more than 200%, and it will build the world's largest physical world operations center in the future, promoting AI from thousands of industries to thousands of households. "In the future, agent autonomous payment will play an increasingly important role. The emergence of the A2P2 Protocol fills the most critical trust gap in the payment field in the era of intelligent economies," said the JD.com representative. They hope that the A2P2 Protocol will establish industry standards for agent autonomous payment and solve the trust problem of the "last mile" of AI payment. A JD.com representative told Caijing that JD.com will next select internal and external scenarios for AI payment pilot programs, attempting to enable intelligent agents to autonomously advance payment-related processes within a single task, such as API (Application Programming Interface) call billing, low-value tool purchases, and single-item travel service bookings. Earlier, payment platforms such as Alipay, WeChat Pay, JD.com, and Du Xiaoman have all launched AI payment solutions for intelligent agents based on their respective ecosystems and capabilities. Among them, Alipay announced the launch of four AI payment capabilities: "AI Pay," "AI Receive," "Token Pay," and "AI Wallet," building a full-stack AI-native payment system for the AI ​​era. As of the end of May 2026, Alipay's AI payment transactions exceeded 300 million, supporting 95% of general intelligent agent frameworks, including general intelligent agents, smart devices, smart cockpits, and AI tool platforms. Furthermore, technology and payment giants such as China UnionPay, Alipay, and Google have previously established their AI payment ecosystems by releasing AI payment protocols. "As a fundamental financial infrastructure, payment always needs to be integrated into an ecosystem to demonstrate its vitality and competitiveness," said a senior expert in the payment field at a small-scale sharing session. He added that behind the competition for AI payment protocols or standards lies primarily an ecosystem competition; therefore, platforms with ecosystem support, such as JD.com and Alipay, will have a comparative advantage in future competition. ### Related Stocks - [688688.CN](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/688688.CN.md) - [03690.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/03690.HK.md) - [JD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/JD.US.md) - [09618.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09618.HK.md) - [KJD.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/KJD.US.md) - [00700.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00700.HK.md) - [DIDIY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DIDIY.US.md) - [09961.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09961.HK.md) - [TCOM.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TCOM.US.md) - [TCEHY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TCEHY.US.md) - [80700.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/80700.HK.md) - [HTCD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HTCD.SG.md) - [TCTZF.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/TCTZF.US.md) - [89618.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/89618.HK.md) - [83690.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/83690.HK.md) - [MPNGY.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MPNGY.US.md) - [HMTD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HMTD.SG.md) - [HTGD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HTGD.SG.md) ## Related News & Research - [Elliott mulls $2.67 billion takeover of UK's The Very Group, Sky News reports](https://longbridge.com/en/news/289473772.md) - [BREAKINGVIEWS-China tech key-man risk has its own flavour](https://longbridge.com/en/news/289269510.md) - [JD.com, Inc. 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