The feature follows what is arguably the largest redesign in Alipay’s 22-year history.
Earlier this month, Alipay opened Ah Bao, its AI-enhanced interface, to public beta. Around the same time, WeChat Pay introduced an “AI card” within the WorkBuddy agent.
Since the start of 2026, major platforms and payment providers have unveiled their approaches to AI in quick succession. Agentic AI, systems designed to carry out tasks on a user’s behalf, is beginning to enter payments.
But as payment apps adopt AI, they are also encountering behavior unlike the utilitarian habits they were built to encourage.
After the AI version of Alipay entered closed beta, a company representative told 36Kr that one development surprised the team. Many users opened Ah Bao not to complete a task, but simply to “take it for a spin.” They chatted with it, asked unusual questions, and tested its responses.
