Alipay AI Open Platform Lets Developers Build Callable Tools

Alipay opened an invite-only beta of its AI Open Platform, letting merchants and developers turn mini-programs into tools callable through the app's conversational AI interface, Abao. Instead of tapping through menus, users can talk to the app and the AI calls the right tool automatically.

The platform follows a pattern Alipay has run for about three weeks. The AI-powered version of Alipay started invite testing around June 16. Alipay AI Pay reached 100 million users by February 2026 and processed over 120 million transactions in a single week that month.

Ant Group spent years exploring blockchain-based solutions for supply chain finance and cross-border payments. Now it is channeling platform expansion into AI, not Web3. Several blockchain projects are building AI agent frameworks for autonomous on-chain interactions. Alipay's approach is the centralized alternative: AI agents inside a permissioned ecosystem with nearly a billion existing users.

The invite-only testing will determine how quickly merchants adopt the platform. Transaction volumes from AI Pay, already at 120 million per week, offer a baseline for measuring the impact. Alipay has not announced a public launch date for the AI Open Platform.