The over two billion consumers within Tencent and Alibaba’s ecosystems use these platforms to send messages, shop, and pay in a unified super app. Now, many of these users will be able to leverage the platforms’ AI agents for full-fledged agentic commerce.
For example, Alibaba has just unlocked full access to its e-commerce ecosystem for its Qwen AI agent. This means that if a consumer wants to order food or buy tickets, they can prompt Qwen with their desired item, and the AI agent will handle everything—including payment through Alibaba’s affiliate Alipay.
Previously, the Qwen chatbot was limited to providing recommendations in response to user prompts. Consumers still had to visit other platforms to complete their orders.
Developing the Moat
One of Alibaba’s goals in integrating agentic commerce is to increase user engagement and build a stronger competitive moat. Currently, Tencent’s WeChat holds a commanding position in China’s thriving super app market.
However, Tencent has also indicated that it is pursuing agentic commerce initiatives, and its chatbot Yuanbao could soon see similar upgrades as Qwen. What’s more, TikTok owner ByteDance has already upgraded its AI chatbot to handle certain tasks autonomously within the e-commerce segment of its Douyin app.
The Crucible for Agentic Commerce
This agentic commerce zeitgeist was sparked by Visa and Mastercard, who rolled out iterations of the service last year. Their launches prompted many of the largest U.S. tech players to either introduce agentic commerce platforms or begin building the necessary infrastructure.
Despite these foundational efforts, little headway was made in implementing true agentic commerce last year. This suggests that 2026 could be a crucible for a technology with both dynamic upsides and compelling concerns.
One frequently cited issue with agentic commerce is that, in regions like the U.S., services are splintered across different apps and companies. Super apps, however, could present agentic capabilities to consumers at scale. This makes the super apps from Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance compelling proving grounds for agentic commerce.
