Alipay launches an agentic commerce platform for Chinese merchants

Alipay held its inaugural AI Ecosystem Partner Conference in Hangzhou, where it launched a full-stack agentic commerce platform for merchants across China. Businesses without existing AI capability can convert web pages, product listings and service workflows into agent-ready skills and MCP tools, while merchants already running AI services can build and manage agents for tasks such as product recommendations and membership programmes.

Alipay also introduced the Agent Hub-Access protocol, under which its "Abao" assistant coordinates backend service execution across more than 10,000 everyday services, from utility payments to EV charging. Abao is now built into five smartphone brands that together account for over 70 percent of China's handset market, and into systems from 16 car manufacturers. More than 20 companies, including Qwen, Huawei, OPPO, BYD and Geely, are connecting their own agents to the network.

Tying commerce, payments and identity into a single agent protocol positions Alipay as the settlement layer underneath any assistant operating in China, regardless of which company built it.