(Yicai) Jan. 15 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s artificial intelligence assistant Qwen has been integrated with key services across the Chinese e-commerce giant’s ecosystem from today, allowing users to order food deliveries, shop online, book flights and access numerous other services with a single spoken or typed command.

The app, which is now integrated into all Alibaba's main services from e-retail platforms Taobao and Taobao Instant Commerce to mobile payments arm Alipay, online travel agency Fliggy and navigation app Amap, has been opened for testing to users.

On uttering a simple instruction such as “Help me order a cup of coffee” in the chat interface, Qwen will recommend a product and a delivery address based on the user’s location. When Yicai tried it out, Qwen suggested a Luckin Coffee Americano, after first binding accounts with Taobao. By clicking “Choose it,” users can seamlessly transition to Alipay to complete the payment, eliminating the need to switch between multiple apps.

“AI is evolving from intelligence to agency,” said Wu Jia, vice president of Hangzhou-based Alibaba. “What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act - deeply connected to real-world services.

“Qwen App is Alibaba’s approach to the next era of AI applications: not just powerful, but genuinely useful in everyday life. By making these capabilities freely available, we aim to help users offload repetitive tasks to an intelligent assistant they can rely on.”

Qwen has also rolled out a new 'Task Assistant' feature, which is currently only available in the invite-only beta version. Built on Qwen’s advanced models, a tiered multi-agent architecture and Alibaba’s ecosystem intelligence, the tool is designed to complete complex personal and professional workflows in just minutes.

While the influence of Alibaba’s Tongyi Qianwen foundational model is significant, the firm does not have a “super entry point” on the consumer side, analysts said. That role was initially assigned to the Tongyi app, but its monthly active users lagged far behind rivals such as ByteDance’s Doubao. Alibaba has since rebranded and upgraded Tongyi into Qwen, shifting the focus of consumer-side AI to this AI-native app.

In December last year, Alibaba set up a dedicated Qwen Consumer Business Group. Since its public beta launch on Nov. 17, 2025, the Qwen app has amassed more than 100 million monthly active users.

However, analysts caution that in scenarios involving user selection, payments and other sensitive interactions, Qwen will face challenges related to privacy protection and data security.

Editor: Kim Taylor