Alibaba Enhances Qwen App With Food Ordering and Travel Booking
Alibaba has launched major upgrades to its Qwen AI app, saying it can now execute tasks such as ordering food delivery and making travel bookings. As a result, the company is pushing more aggressively into consumer-facing AI.
Notably, the new features are now in public testing in China. Users can complete tasks directly inside the AI chat interface. Therefore, they no longer need to switch between multiple apps.
Shift from understanding to acting
The upgrade comes two months after a major Qwen App update tied to a strategic pivot into consumer-facing AI. Previously, the company focused mainly on enterprise AI services through its cloud business. Meanwhile, it had lagged domestic rivals ByteDance and Tencent in consumer AI.
“What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act—deeply connected to real-world services,” said Wu Jia, Vice President of Alibaba Group.
Integrated services and new task assistant
In addition, the upgrade connects several ecosystem services into one AI interface, including Taobao, instant commerce, Alipay, Fliggy, and Amap. For example, integrating Alipay allows users to authorise and complete transactions without leaving the chat.
Currently, the AI payment feature supports instant commerce orders. Over time, it will expand to additional services, the company said.
The company also unveiled a “Task Assistant” feature in invite-only beta. According to the update, it can make real phone calls to restaurants, process up to 100 documents at once, and plan multi-stop travel itineraries.
Since then, Qwen App has surpassed 100 million monthly active users within two months of its public beta launch on November 17, according to the statement. Overall, the expansion reflects growing competition in China’s AI sector as companies race to turn advanced language models into everyday consumer tools.
