Fintech giant Ant Group spins out AI service into a personal assistant app in China

Zhixiaobao, a play on the Chinese name for Alipay, helps users with daily tasks such as ordering meals or hailing taxis through text or voice prompts

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Ant Group’s new AI chatbot app is named Zhixiaobao, a play on the Chinese name of Alipay, Zhifubao. Photo: Handout

Published: 3:43pm, 5 Sep 2024Updated: 3:44pm, 5 Sep 2024

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, the operator of one of China’s largest payment services, Alipay, has launched a stand-alone artificial intelligence (AI) app that works as a virtual assistant in its latest effort to turn large language models (LLM) into consumer services.

Ant launched its chatbot app Zhixiaobao on Thursday, with a name meant to make it sound like a child of its main payments app called Zhifubao in Chinese. The chatbot is able to facilitate daily tasks such as ordering meals and hailing taxis. It also gives users access to a range of third-party services through either text or voice prompts, the company said, allowing it to assist with different types of personal errands.

The app is part of Ant’s efforts to turn AI into “practical, user-focused solutions”, and make assistants like Zhixiaobao “valuable tools in everyday life for all”, company president Cyril Han said in a statement.

The app works with third-party services, making it useful for different types of personal errands. Photo: Handout

Han also said during a conference in Shanghai on Thursday that Ant will launch two additional AI apps for personal wealth management, called Maxiaocai, and health management. Ant Group is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Ant is among many Chinese tech firms that have ploughed resources into developing their own LLMs amid a global generative AI race. It is also not alone in now trying to monetise those efforts as investors start to question whether AI’s potential has been overvalued. Baidu on Wednesday announced that it would rebrand its Ernie chatbot as Wenxiaoyan, personifying it to make it more relatable to consumers.

In April, Ant launched Zhixiaobao as a feature within its domestic Alipay app. It focuses on addressing users’ wealth management and insurance-related needs, such as helping users generate asset-management plans.

Zhixiaobao is built on Ant’s Bailing foundational model, which the company says focuses on use cases that include financial, healthcare and life services.