Ant Group Secretly Testing AI Version of Alipay? Company Refuses to Comment

On June 14, market sources reported that Ant Group is secretly testing an “AI version of Alipay.” The new version is said to completely overhaul the traditional user interface, allowing a one-click switch to a native AI interface that intelligently handles everything from service provision to fund management. However, the release date remains undecided. According to a report from the National Business Daily, Ant Group has refused to comment on this information.

This news highlights Alipay’s efforts to secure a traffic gateway in the AI era, as it evolves from a super app integrating payments, finance, e-commerce, and social features. Industry insiders view the transition from a collection of functions to a hub for intelligent agents as an inevitable trend.

Industry Analyst Analysis

Wang Pengbo, chief analyst at Boto Consulting, told the National Business Daily that if Alipay pushes forward a full-scale AI transformation, it could intensify the intelligent competition among similar products and spur the entire mobile payment industry to complete its transformation from a tool application to an intelligent service platform.

Wang Pengbo stated, “The boundaries between payments, wealth management, and lifestyle services within the industry may become even more blurred. However, regarding the specific direction of product changes and the final form, we will need to await the official release for further analysis and evaluation.” He also noted that such a large-scale overhaul would require changes to existing user habits, as well as addressing issues like data security, compliance, and AI risk management. As a result, a full-scale release in the short term is unlikely. He suggested that small-scale testing would begin first, followed by continuous optimization based on actual conditions.

Transformation of Payments in the Agent Economy

With the explosive adoption of agentic AI, consumer behavior is shifting from active searching to “AI-driven delegation.” According to survey data, approximately 10% of consumers currently start their online shopping process through AI, and 20% would like AI to make purchases on their behalf.

In the traditional e-commerce model, consumers typically browse, compare prices, and place orders themselves. However, in the agent economy era, shopping is transforming from browsing-based purchasing to “conversational purchasing.” Consumers simply tell the AI, “I want a summer shirt, budget around 100 yuan,” and the AI agent automatically completes the entire process of searching, comparing prices, ordering, and payment.

Alipay has already introduced “AI Pay,” which supports AI-driven purchases for items under 1,000 yuan. Specifically, within the Taobao app, when a user sends a request to the AI shopping assistant, Alipay’s AI Pay generates a one-time authorization setting for the purchase task. After the user verifies their identity and gives approval, the AI executes price monitoring and ordering as instructed. Alipay’s AI Pay plans to expand its functionality to high-frequency, repetitive scenarios such as transportation, utility bill payments, and bulk procurement in the future.

At the Alipay AI Payment Ecosystem Conference on May 26, Han Xinyi, CEO of Ant Group, stated that in the agent economy era, the essence of business and the fact that AI ultimately serves humans remain unchanged. What changes is that the subject of payment shifts from humans to AI agents, service continuity is ensured through the scheduling of computing resources, and seamless payments are supported. As service scenarios become more granular, micro-payments will emerge as a new need. AI payments will be widely applied in scenarios such as content consumption and data authorization, significantly lowering payment costs and revitalizing the long-tail economy, he explained. Payment forms will undergo a new revolution, evolving into a hub for value adjustment and handling the circulation and value conversion of multi-dimensional digital assets.

Intensifying Competition in the AI Payment Market

Ant Group officially announced its “AI First” strategy in 2023, and Alipay began a full-scale AI transformation. In September 2025, at the 2025 Inclusion·Bund Conference, it announced the launch of the “AI Pay” service, committing to provide payment services for agents in the AI era. This feature was first introduced at Luckin Coffee’s AI ordering assistant “Lucky AI,” where Alipay realized the entire process from agent ordering to payment. Subsequently, on April 28, 2026, it officially launched “AI Collect,” enabling businesses and individual developers to offer commercial services through AI agents such as OpenClaw (an AI agent framework) and receive payment immediately upon invocation.

The intensifying competition is also evident in WeChat Pay’s moves. In April 2026, WeChat Pay officially released a payment connection function system for AI. This system consists of three core modules: Skill Packs, AI-friendly documentation, and AI-friendly APIs.

Wang Pengbo believes that if Alipay pushes forward a full-scale AI transformation, it will intensify intelligent competition with similar products and trigger the entire mobile payment industry’s shift from tool applications to smart service platforms. The boundaries between payments, wealth management, and lifestyle services may become even more blurred, and institutions are expected to increase investment in AI-related technologies, focusing on areas such as smart interaction, smart wealth management, and scenario-based services.

Risks and Challenges Facing AI Payments

While AI payments optimize the transaction experience and transform consumption and commercial models, they also introduce new risks and challenges to the industry.

The biggest challenge is the allocation of responsibility in AI-driven autonomous transaction models. An executive at a global payment institution told the National Business Daily that when an AI causes an erroneous order, the boundaries of rights and responsibilities lack clear standards. Specifically, the scope of responsibility among users, service platforms, and AI developers is unclear. Payment institutions not only need to handle fund transfers but also must build intent recognition, anti-fraud systems, and rights determination mechanisms suited to AI transaction modes.

Li Liang, Director of Business Development for Ant International’s Antom China region, pointed out that in the AI era, traditional concepts of payment risk management are no longer applicable, and the situation is highly complex. Since purchase requests may be initiated by agents, establishing mutual trust, identifying and assessing risks, and effectively resolving risks are all major challenges.

According to a research report from Guolian Minsheng Securities, mainstream large language models possess strong reasoning, planning, and multi-agent collaborative decision-making capabilities, but they still have deficiencies in executing transactions. They cannot autonomously complete financial actions such as “payment, budget management, approval verification, and on-chain settlement.” Balancing user experience with risk management is a core issue that AI payments must urgently address.

Visa also recently announced a payment integration with ChatGPT, enabling purchases by AI agents. While the industry as a whole is accelerating the practical application of AI payments, the establishment of safety standards is still in progress.

Editorial Opinion

The rumor of Ant Group’s AI version of Alipay testing can be seen as a symbolic event where super platforms are exploring adaptation to the agent economy. In the short term, the AI payment competition between Alipay and WeChat Pay will accelerate, with both companies forced to balance user experience improvement and risk management. Particularly in the Chinese market, where both have user bases of hundreds of millions, their moves are likely to determine the direction of the entire mobile payment industry. If AI simplifies operations, it could also help attract elderly and digitally less literate users, potentially expanding the payment market further.

In the long term, the proliferation of AI payments may change the core concept of payment itself. If transactions that bypass human decision-making increase, the framework of financial regulation itself will need to be revised. Moreover, as the boundaries between payments, wealth management, and lifestyle services become blurred, the traditional division of roles between financial institutions and technology companies may be redefined. If an era arrives where AI agents manage assets and optimize spending on behalf of users, the importance of individual financial literacy will relatively decline, while ensuring the reliability and transparency of AI will become a new social challenge.

From the editorial perspective, the biggest unresolved issue in AI payments is “responsibility attribution in case of erroneous transactions.” If losses occur in a transaction without human involvement, who should bear the responsibility—the user, the platform, or the AI developer? The current legal system is inadequate to handle this, and regulators in various countries need to urgently establish guidelines. Additionally, if AI payments become widespread, privacy issues concerning the handling of personal purchase data will become more severe. The industry is being challenged to advance not only technical solutions but also the development of legal and ethical frameworks in parallel.

References

• Huxiu: “Secretly Testing AI Version of Alipay”? Ant Group Refuses to Comment — Published 2026-06-14
• Related: Visa Enables AI Agent Purchases with ChatGPT Payment Integration (Previous article on this site)