Chinese tech giants enter the 'agentic commerce' race as AI reshapes super apps

China's leading technology firms are embarking on an exciting new chapter in the artificial intelligence landscape with the emergence of 'agentic commerce.' Major players like Alibaba and ByteDance are striving to transform chatbots into comprehensive shopping and payment solutions. Recently, Alibaba enhanced its Qwen AI chatbot, enabling users to complete transactions directly within the chat interface. This includes features like ordering food and booking flights, seamlessly integrating with Alibaba's vast e-commerce ecosystem. Users can now obtain personalized product recommendations from platforms such as Taobao and Fliggy, and make payments through Alipay—all without leaving the chatbot environment. Previously, while Qwen could suggest products based on user prompts, customers still had to navigate multiple platforms to finalize purchases. This transformation signifies a shift in focus for global AI firms from foundational models to 'agentic AI,' which performs tasks for users with minimal oversight. Shaochen Wang, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, emphasizes that this evolution in commercial services enhances user engagement and loyalty, creating a sustainable competitive edge, often referred to as a business moat. E-commerce has quickly emerged as one of the first and most widespread applications of agentic AI, with companies in the U.S. also unveiling their initial offerings. In China, Alibaba's advanced language model capabilities and extensive network encompassing various sectors—ranging from clothing to transportation—position it as a frontrunner in this domain. In the race, Alibaba faces competition from Tencent's WeChat, which is recognized as China's leading super app, integrating messaging, payments, and e-commerce for over a billion users. Other firms are not lagging behind; ByteDance recently upgraded its Doubao AI chatbot, allowing it to autonomously manage ticket bookings through e-commerce features on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok. Although some features were later scaled down due to privacy concerns, the push for comprehensive AI assistants is evident. Tencent's President Martin Lau remarked that AI agents could become integral to the WeChat ecosystem, with Charlie Dai, VP at Forrester, stating that the success of super apps will depend on how well they integrate payments, logistics, and social interactions. While Chinese companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance leverage their integrated ecosystems and rich consumer data, Western firms face challenges such as fragmented data and stringent privacy regulations, which can hinder service integration. In the U.S., companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Amazon are also exploring agentic commerce, while Google seeks to become a connector between merchants, consumers, and AI agents. According to a recent McKinsey study, nearly half of all consumers are already using AI for online searches, and it predicts that AI agents could contribute over $1 trillion in economic value for U.S. businesses by 2030 by streamlining consumer decision-making processes.