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

▤ Summary

Chinese tech giants are racing to embed agentic AI into super apps so chatbots can perform end-to-end shopping and payment tasks. Alibaba upgraded its Qwen chatbot to let users compare items across Taobao and Fliggy and complete payments via Alipay without leaving the interface. ByteDance upgraded Doubao with similar autonomous booking features and Tencent has signaled AI agents will become core to WeChat, while U.S. firms pursue agentic commerce with different data and governance constraints. Analysts say agentic commerce will boost user stickiness and create competitive moats, and a McKinsey estimate forecasts more than $1 trillion in economic value from AI agents by 2030.

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