--- title: "WeChat AI Card Real-World Testing Guide: Has the Era of AI Shopping Arrived?" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/290210137.md" description: "WeChat launched the AI-enabled Exclusive Card for WeChat Pay, allowing users to fund an independent balance for AI Agent transactions via WorkBuddy. However, real-world testing reveals it does not support fully automated payments; each transaction still requires user confirmation. The feature currently targets standardized scenarios like paid content and APIs, with everyday tasks like ordering milk tea proving difficult due to fulfillment limitations." datetime: "2026-06-18T13:45:18.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/290210137.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/290210137.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/290210137.md) --- # WeChat AI Card Real-World Testing Guide: Has the Era of AI Shopping Arrived? On June 17th, WeChat officially announced the release of the AI-enabled Exclusive Card for WeChat Pay. According to the official description, users can submit their consumption requests during conversations with Workbuddy and complete the related payments using the AI-enabled Exclusive Card. This sounds very interesting: in the future, AI can order a cup of milk tea, buy a service, or subscribe to a tool, and the AI ​​can handle the entire process itself. However, in actual use, we found that the WeChat AI-enabled Exclusive Card does not yet support fully automated AI consumption. A more accurate understanding is that it is a payment capability layer opened up by WeChat Pay to the AI ​​Agent, but each transaction still requires user confirmation, and whether the purchase can actually be completed depends on the Agent, Skill, third-party platform authorization, and product fulfillment process. This article will start with two questions and a practical demonstration: What exactly is the WeChat AI-enabled Exclusive Card? What can it do now, and what can't it do? Let's test it by ordering a milk tea and see how many pitfalls we encounter. First, the conclusion: The WeChat AI Exclusive Card is not a "card that AI can swipe at will." From a product mechanism perspective, the WeChat AI Exclusive Card is more like a "small wallet" separate from the main WeChat wallet. Users need to bind the AI ​​Exclusive Card first, and then recharge it from their WeChat Wallet. Afterwards, AI Agent's related spending will be deducted first from this independent balance, rather than directly using the user's regular WeChat Wallet funds. In short, it addresses three key questions: First, where does the money for AI-driven spending come from? The AI-specific card has an independent balance, making the financial boundaries clearer. Second, can AI spending be controlled? Each payment still requires the user to scan a code and confirm on their mobile phone; it's not an automatic deduction by AI. Third, how are AI spending records managed? AI-related expenditures are separated from regular WeChat Pay, making them easier to view and manage. ### II. How to Activate: The entry point is in the Workbuddy conversation WorkBuddy is a desktop office efficiency intelligent agent launched by Tencent, more like an Agent workbench, with an interface similar to CodeX. It can understand the user's goals in the conversation, and then call external capabilities to complete tasks through different "expert" Agents or Skills, such as office processing, information query, local life services, etc. This time, WeChat Pay's AI exclusive card is the first to be integrated with WorkBuddy, which also means that WeChat Pay is not directly open to all AI applications, but rather is first testing the complete link of "AI initiating payment and user confirming deduction" in a relatively controlled Agent scenario. The actual activation process is not complicated: First, ask in the Workbuddy dialog box: "How do I use the WeChat AI Exclusive Payment Card?" The Agent will return a redirect link ⬇️ Second, after clicking the link, you need to scan the QR code with WeChat to bind it. Here's a small detail: the binding link is only valid for 5 minutes; scan the code as soon as possible after generating it. The third step is to read and agree to the relevant agreement, enter your payment password, and then complete the binding. After binding, users can use their original WeChat Wallet to top up their AI-exclusive card. The activation and top-up experience is quite smooth. However, the real problem with AI payment isn't "how to activate the card," but rather whether AI can actually help users make purchases smoothly after activation. III. Which Scenarios Is It Currently Suitable For? According to Workbuddy's explanation, the AI-exclusive card is mainly aimed at several types of AI consumption scenarios: 1. Purchasing paid content, such as reports, data, and professional analysis services. 2. Calling paid APIs or tools, such as certain online plugins, professional database queries, and pay-per-use tools. 3. Subscribing to or renewing services, such as value-added functions within the platform and membership services. These scenarios have one thing in common: the payment object is relatively standardized, the consumption chain is short, and the fulfillment method is relatively clear. However, unfortunately, so far, we haven't been able to test Workbuddy directly using the AI-exclusive card for payment in these three types of applications. According to Workbuddy, certain built-in payment functions need to be triggered. IV. Real-world test: Asking Workbuddy to order a Heytea for me failed. We tried a very straightforward everyday scenario: asking Workbuddy to order a Heytea for me. The result was that we encountered a limitation right from the start. Workbuddy itself cannot directly complete this type of food delivery or beverage ordering request; it requires calling the corresponding lifestyle service skill. Therefore, referring to the official WeChat demonstration, we selected the "Meituan Life Assistant" Skill. This step introduced a new cost issue: simply generating the QR code to log in to the Meituan account consumed 185.37 points. In comparison, Workbuddy awards 150 points for daily login. In other words, before even actually placing an order, the login authorization step alone exceeded the daily free points limit. After completing the account login authorization, we let it order milk tea. When the AI-exclusive card payment link popped up, the experience was indeed very close to "AI buying things for me." However, after payment, we discovered that Workbuddy had actually purchased not the milk tea we wanted, but a Meituan group-buying coupon that didn't meet our needs. The payment was completed, but the purchase result did not match the user's requirements. V. Reasons for Failure: The Problem Lies Not in Payment, but in the Agent Execution Chain. In fact, this failure cannot be simply attributed to the AI-enabled card being "unusable." More accurately, the AI-enabled card is responsible for payment capabilities, not complete purchasing capabilities. The real bottleneck is the Agent execution chain. A simple task like "order me a milk tea" involves at least the following steps: identifying user needs, calling a third-party platform, completing account authorization, selecting the correct product, confirming the fulfillment method, initiating payment, user confirmation of payment, and completing subsequent fulfillment... The AI-enabled card only covers the "payment" part. The preceding product identification, platform redirection, account authorization, product matching, and subsequent delivery or verification all heavily rely on the capabilities of the Agent and third-party Skills. So in this experience, the AI ​​did trigger the payment, but it didn't complete the "correct purchase." This is also a common problem faced by many AI agents: they can call upon tools, but they can't necessarily reliably complete complex real-world tasks. VI. Current Mechanism: Users Still Hold the Final Payment Confirmation Right From a security perspective, the AI-exclusive card doesn't allow the AI ​​to bypass the user and make payments directly. The current mechanism can be roughly summarized as follows: This design is relatively restrained and aligns with the current reality of AI-driven consumption scenarios. If AI could directly and autonomously make payments, the risks would actually be very high: buying the wrong product, placing duplicate orders, accidental subscriptions, and being misled into making purchases would all become real problems. Therefore, the WeChat AI Exclusive Card is currently more like a WeChat mini-wallet with controllable limits, confirmed transactions, and separation from the main account. Finally, if you just want to experience the WeChat AI-exclusive payment card, you can try activating it, but it's recommended to start with low-amount, low-risk, and digital service scenarios. However, please keep the following three points in mind: 1. Top up a small amount first; don't top up too much at once. 2. Carefully read the product name, amount, and payment method before making a payment. 3. Don't assume the AI ​​Agent understands your true needs, especially when it involves specific stores, delivery, group-buying coupons, and packages. ### Related Stocks - [00700.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/00700.HK.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) ## Related News & Research - [Should Investors Buy the Pullback in Rocket Lab Stock (RKLB)? 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