AI companies in the US and China are evolving their chat platforms into multifunctional, one-stop hubs
What we’re seeing right now in the AI space isn’t just about adding convenience. This is foundational infrastructure change. Companies like OpenAI in the US, and Alibaba and ByteDance in China, are turning their AI chat interfaces into full-service hubs, places where communication, productivity, commerce, and transactions converge in a single platform. This isn’t a trend. It’s a move toward reshaping user behavior at scale.
The reason is obvious: user attention is finite. Winners in this space will be the ones who hold that attention for the longest time and enable the most transactions per session. When users stop jumping between fifteen different apps to do everyday tasks and instead do everything from a single tool, chatting, searching, buying, paying, ordering lunch, then the platform becomes indispensable. Sticky. That’s where the long-term leverage is.
Legacy tech firms tried this with limited results because the tools weren’t ready. Now, AI changes the rules. Large language models (LLMs) make it possible to interact with apps in language, not menus. With that, the idea of an all-in-one interface that works without friction is real. For C-level leaders, the message is simple: platforms that converge services with intelligent AI agents will own user behavior and data at a scale traditional models can’t match.
According to McKinsey, AI-driven retail could be worth $5 trillion globally by 2030. That’s not a soft projection. It’s based on real shifts in how people buy, browse, and decide. AI systems don’t just react. They prompt, anticipate, and optimize. If you’re not building into this behavior change, expect to compete against those who are, and lose efficiency fast.
OpenAI has introduced a new shopping research feature within ChatGPT
OpenAI’s latest addition to ChatGPT is more than a feature, it’s a strategic step toward changing how we shop. Right now, if someone wants to buy something, say a TV for a bright room, they hit search engines, go through articles, filter lists, maybe watch a few videos. Chaos. Now, ChatGPT does this in one go. The user types a simple question, and the model searches, filters, and follows up with thoughtful questions to refine the options.
OpenAI already added “instant checkout” back in September. This capability lets users buy products directly inside the chat window. What’s coming next is the link between these two experiences: research and purchase. That’s powerful. It compresses the funnel into a single interface. This isn’t innovation for the sake of it, it’s about removing unnecessary steps so customers don’t drop off before completing a transaction.
Think about this from an executive lens. If your product discovery path can cut drop-off rates by even a couple of percentage points, your ROI on AI deployment justifies itself within months. Multiply that across hundreds of use cases, and you’ve got a competitive advantage that compounds.
The leading apps in China have already shown this works. Taobao and Tmall built models that integrate AI into product discovery years ago. OpenAI aligning with this structure, except tailored for Western users, makes sense. It’s not copying. It’s executing better, with stronger models and advanced feedback loops trained on massive user prompts.
If you’re a product leader, ask yourself: is the AI embedded in your customer funnel helping users move faster toward value? If the answer is no, you’re dragging behind. AI that simplifies decisions and executes them right within the conversation is not optional anymore. It’s the new table stakes.
Chinese tech giants have been pioneers in melding shopping, social, and financial services
China’s tech ecosystem figured this out before the West. Platforms like Alibaba’s Taobao and ByteDance’s Douyin are already proving what happens when you combine social interaction, commerce, video, and payment systems into a single experience. Users stay longer, engage more, and spend more. This isn’t experimental; it’s embedded into the daily behavior of hundreds of millions of users.
Now, they’re layering AI on top of it. ByteDance’s AI app, Doubao, has been integrated directly with Douyin, the Chinese counterpart to TikTok. As of now, Doubao has 172 million users, while Douyin has over 1 billion. That’s critical scale. Chinese companies understand that the strongest online ecosystems aren’t assembled function by function, they’re built around maximizing retention and service completion inside one interface. Whether it’s shopping, chatting, or watching videos, users don’t leave the app. The friction is gone.
This is strategic defensibility. If a user is shopping on Douyin, consuming content, messaging friends, and transacting in real time, where do outside platforms fit in? They don’t. Once AI gets deeply embedded into that cycle, the system doesn’t just become efficient, it learns. It personalizes, adapts, and drives even better user retention. That’s increasing network value in motion.
The Western market often underestimates this approach because of platform fragmentation. But fragmentation is a weakness AI can fix. For C-suite executives, the lesson is straightforward: integrated ecosystems win. Platforms offering commerce in isolation from social or interface learning are already behind. Chinese firms aren’t following the AI wave, they’re shaping it around already-dominant app behaviors.
Alibaba is aggressively advancing its Qwen platform to establish an AI-first shopping ecosystem
Alibaba is moving quickly and deliberately. With ChatGPT unavailable in mainland China, Alibaba has a clear runway to lead domestically, and they’re not hesitating. The company recently unified several consumer tools under the Qwen brand and reintroduced it across iOS and Android platforms. Within a week, Qwen hit 10 million downloads. That’s a signal of market readiness.
But Alibaba’s ambitions with Qwen go further. They’re not only integrating shopping. They’re embedding AI smart agents across Tmall, Taobao, and even Alibaba.com. These assets connect to over 1 billion users. Now, with Qwen in the loop, users can expect tailored product recommendations, dynamic adjustments to search results, and AI agents that reason through purchase intent, all within the Alibaba platform.
Alibaba has also said it’s rolling out additional services through Qwen, including maps, food delivery, travel booking, office tools, education, and health guidance. This makes Qwen a central interface for daily life, not just a shopping assistant. AI isn’t the add-on here, it’s the operating core. Executives need to understand what that means: every user interaction becomes a source of learning for the platform. That improves personalization, user satisfaction, conversion rates, and ultimately revenue.
Kenny Ng of China Everbright Securities International stated that Qwen’s ability to boost Alibaba’s direct-to-consumer business will be a key factor in how investors value the company going forward. It’s a serious metric. It shows that financial markets are watching not just product rollouts, but how deeply AI transforms core business performance.
There’s another layer here. Alibaba is building international expansion right into the roadmap. A global version of Qwen is already in planning. That means over time, the company is positioning itself against Western AI platforms not only in China, but globally. If you’re in executive leadership on the product or strategy side, this is something you track very closely. The speed of execution here is not typical, it’s designed to close market gaps before competitors even start addressing them.
Ant group, Alibaba’s financial arm, is entering the AI assistant space with its multimodal assistant, LingGuang
Ant Group isn’t operating on the sidelines. They’re executing fast. The release of LingGuang, their multimodal AI assistant, marks a clear move into consumer-facing AI tools, and the market response shows there’s appetite. One million downloads in just four days is more than momentum; it’s validation that the demand for intelligent, task-capable assistants is real and growing.
LingGuang ties directly into Ant Group’s broader financial ecosystem. That means the assistant isn’t just for search or reminders, it’s aimed at relevant services like payments, wealth management, and digital finance. The assistant can ingest visual, voice, and text inputs, giving it flexibility to support a range of use cases. When you add that to the behavior already shaped by Alipay’s existing user base, the product becomes a natural interface for transaction-enabling AI.
This move aligns with Alibaba’s ecosystem-wide shift toward embedding AI at operational scale. If consumers are already using the Alibaba network to manage shopping and lifestyle needs, then AI tools like LingGuang extend that same interaction model into finance and data-driven decision support. It’s not about building new audiences; it’s about deepening utility with the existing ones.
For C-level decision-makers, the signal here isn’t just product development, it’s platform alignment. Ant Group is positioning LingGuang to be part of a much larger loop, where commerce, finance, AI, and user behavior intersect. Any business operating in adjacent or competitive spaces should be assessing whether their own digital assistants are delivering measurable value and retention at this pace.
Both OpenAI and Alibaba are championing “agentic commerce,” where AI handles multiple steps of the shopping process
We’re entering a phase where AI doesn’t just assist, you can delegate tasks to it. That’s the essence of agentic commerce. OpenAI and Alibaba are moving fast on this front, building AI systems that don’t just respond to prompts, they handle entire workflows. Intent recognition, product selection, comparison, purchase, all inside one interface, and all executed with minimal user input.
This isn’t speculative; it’s a response to real behavior shifts. Consumers don’t want more features, they want outcomes, delivered faster and smarter. And that’s what these AI models are engineered to do. An AI agent that can understand context, ask meaningful follow-up questions, and commit transactions on behalf of the user significantly reduces the cognitive load and time spent per task.
For organizations, this means more than efficiency. It changes the definition of customer engagement. Instead of optimizing for each step in a funnel, you shift the model entirely, where the AI is the funnel. That changes how product teams think about feature sets, how marketing approaches conversion, and ultimately, how businesses scale interaction across larger audiences.
OpenAI is integrating services like Booking.com and Spotify directly into ChatGPT. Alibaba is doing the same with maps, travel bookings, and food delivery through Qwen. Once these systems are fully functional, users will interact with fewer apps and rely on their AI agent to mediate interactions. That locks in user behavior and increases platform value.
The implications for leaders are direct. If your customer experience still relies on expecting users to navigate interfaces, do comparative shopping, or complete long purchase paths manually, you’re not optimizing. The future is conversational, agent-driven, and seamless. Agentic commerce isn’t a tool, it’s the next platform standard.
Key takeaways for leaders
- AI super apps are gaining ground: Tech leaders in the US and China are embedding AI into multifunctional chat platforms to centralize user engagement. Leaders should prioritize ecosystem integration to remain competitive in a consolidating digital services landscape.
- AI-driven shopping is reducing friction: OpenAI’s ChatGPT now combines product discovery with instant checkout, streamlining end-to-end purchase flows. Executives should explore how conversational AI can compress sales funnels and boost transaction rates.
- China’s integrated model shows proven scale: Alibaba and ByteDance have built high-retention ecosystems by merging commerce with entertainment and payments. Western firms should evaluate how bundling services within a single interface can drive engagement and monetization.
- Alibaba is scaling qwen as an AI-first platform: With Qwen, Alibaba is embedding AI agents into core surfaces like Tmall, Taobao, and Alibaba.com, targeting both users and merchants. Decision-makers should view AI agents as foundational architecture, not add-ons, for future platform dominance.
- Financial AI tools are expanding rapidly: Ant Group’s LingGuang hit 1M downloads in four days, signaling strong demand for personalized, finance-focused AI assistants. Execs in finance and e-commerce should accelerate AI assistant development to deepen platform utility and user stickiness.
- Agentic commerce is reshaping consumer behavior: OpenAI and Alibaba are building systems that automate tasks like search, selection, and checkout with minimal input. Leaders should rethink UX strategies around autonomous decision-making by AI to improve conversion and simplify customer journeys.
