As AI adoption gained momentum during the 2026 Chinese New Year, Ant Group announced today that both Alipay AI Pay and its AI health app AQ have each surpassed the 100 million user milestone.
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A Chinese consumer paying with Alipay AI payment solution while ordering coffee
AI Payment Adoption Accelerates amid CNY AI Shopping Boom
From ordering bubble tea and coffee to buying movie tickets, Chinese consumers embraced AI-powered services in everyday scenarios during this year’s holiday, driving a surge in Alipay AI Pay usage.
Alipay AI Pay has surpassed 100 million users on February 23, becoming the world’s first AI-native payment product to reach this milestone. This surge highlights the broad commercial adoption of AI-powered payments. During the week of February 5-11, Alipay AI Pay processed over 120 million transactions.
Launched in 2025, Alipay AI Pay is an innovative payment solution that enables secure and seamless transactions through AI agents. By allowing consumers to pay via voice command and eliminating the need to switch between pages, Alipay AI Pay delivers a frictionless and more intuitive payment experience.
As agentic commerce accelerates in China, Alipay AI Pay has expanded into various use cases, including AI agents in apps and mini programs for brick-and-mortar retailers like Luckin Coffee, as well as AI smart glasses like Rokid and Alibaba’s consumer-facing AI application Qwen.
AQ Becomes the World’s Largest AI-Native Health App
This Chinese New Year, AQ gained traction through word of mouth and a series of marketing initiatives. During the holiday period, the standalone AQ app surpassed 100 million total users, making it the world’s largest AI-native health app.
A standout trend during the holiday was young people returning to their hometowns and introducing AQ to their families. Data shows that between February 9 and February 21, 52% of new users came from third-tier cities and below, highlighting the app’s rapid expansion beyond major urban centers. The most frequently used features included health Q&A, AI skin analysis, voice call consultations, personalized health goals, and digital health records.
This momentum translated into a sharp rise in downloads, with AQ ranking No. 1 on China’s Apple App Store overall download chart for several consecutive days during the holiday period.
In China, using AI to manage personal health is becoming increasingly common during both everyday life and during travel. According to AQ app data, usage among Chinese users traveling overseas during the holiday period from February 9 to February 21 increased by 106% compared with the same period in January prior to the holiday. Travelers relied on AQ to manage potential health concerns, including discomfort caused by changes in climate, diet, and environment.
A Focused AI Strategy
These milestones build on Ant Group’s distinctive AI strategy. While many companies compete for general-purpose AI entry points, Ant has focused on specialized, high-barrier sectors such as payments and healthcare—areas that demand deep expertise and, above all, user trust.
This approach is a natural extension of Ant Group’s business philosophy over the past two decades: leveraging technology to solve real-world livelihood challenges in specific scenarios, meeting societal needs while building durable competitive advantages.
About Ant Group
Ant Group is a global digital technology provider and the operator of Alipay, a leading internet services platform in China, connecting over one billion users to more than 10,000 types of consumer services from partners. Through innovative products and solutions powered by AI, blockchain and other technologies, Ant Group supports partners across industries to thrive through digital transformation in an ecosystem for inclusive and sustainable development. For more information, visit www.antgroup.com.
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