Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. is making ready an overhaul of its important cell AI app in coming months to assist it extra intently resemble OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a key step in a broader effort to catch rivals and finally earn cash off particular person customers.
Alibaba plans to begin by updating the present “Tongyi” apps on iOS and Android and renaming them “Qwen,” after the corporate’s well-known AI mannequin, folks aware of the matter mentioned. It’s going to then progressively add agentic-AI options to help purchasing on platforms together with the primary Taobao market in coming months, the folks mentioned, asking to stay nameless discussing personal deliberations.
The top objective is to attempt to make Qwen a completely functioning AI agent, the folks mentioned, a chief goal for the trade each within the US and China. Alibaba plans to finally broaden globally with an abroad model, the folks mentioned. It’s devoted greater than 100 builders from across the firm to the makeover over previous months, as a part of further AI investments that Chief Govt Officer Eddie Wu teased in September, the folks mentioned.
The Qwen revamp marks one in all Alibaba’s largest strikes to date to attempt to wring income from consumer-facing companies. The Chinese language e-commerce agency has joined rivals from startup Minimax to ByteDance Ltd. in rolling out ever-more superior AI fashions, every making an attempt to outdo sector leaders like OpenAI and DeepSeek on efficiency.
However for a lot of corporations, the monetization mannequin has largely been centered on serving companies with deeper pockets, fairly than Chinese language customers much less comfy with paying for on-line companies. In Alibaba’s case, Qwen additionally lags behind ByteDance’s Doubao and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Yuanbao by way of consumer recognition. By incorporating purchasing options, Alibaba could also be hoping to make use of its conventional energy in e-commerce to attract customers in.