(Yicai) June 23 -- WeChat, the super app of Chinese internet and gaming giant Tencent Holdings, has started testing its long-awaited artificial intelligence assistant, which can operate mini programs to perform various tasks, including ordering takeout or taxis, buying movie tickets, booking hotels, tracking express deliveries, and phone top-ups.

WeChat has deployed Xiaowei to a small number of users for gray box testing, the company announced late yesterday. Users can interact with the AI assistant through text or voice, with the tool accessible through a robot eye-looking button in the upper left corner of the app's main interface or via the function bar in the chat interface.

A Yicai reporter tested Xiaowei's ability to edit photos and create a to-do list app with a simple one-sentence request, receiving a fast response. The person also tried ordering milk tea by giving descriptions of the shop, the name of the product, the sugar content, and the temperature, with the tool taking about one minute to generate a link for the correct milk tea and sugar content, needing just a payment confirmation before placing the order.

In addition, the reporter asked Xiaowei to provide a summary of content for an electronic component on WeChat, receiving links to articles and a summary of each one in just a few seconds. The reporter then asked it to sort out key content posted by Yicai on that day, with the tool selecting articles with many views, summarizing them, and dividing them into various categories, including stock market and economics, society and people's livelihood, and sports and entertainment.

However, WeChat has imposed some limitations on Xiaowei's capabilities. For example, the AI assistant cannot yet sort out news events at a fixed time each day or send messages.

Editor: Martin Kadiev