Key Takeaways
Ant Group's Alipay is aiming to slash development time for merchants with China's first AI 'Payment Integration Skill', allowing payment functions to be added in just 3 steps using natural language commands.
"The goal of the business is democratizing global trade," said Rah Mahtani, U.S. head of marketing and commercial strategy at Alibaba.com, speaking about the company's broader AI push. "We want to give the person sitting in their garage the same tools."
Developers can download the skill, install it in the Vibe Coding tool, and describe their payment needs in natural language. To ensure security, Alipay also upgraded its sandbox environment, enabling full-chain payment testing without involving real funds or formal product activation.
For parent company Alibaba (BABA), this signals a deeper push into the agentic AI economy, potentially lowering barriers for SME adoption and strengthening its fintech moat against competitors like Tencent's WeChat Pay.
The move follows the November 2024 launch of Accio by Alibaba International, an AI agent platform for businesses. Its newest tool, Accio Work, leverages 26 years of sourcing knowledge to help business owners manage tasks from product sourcing and design to market trend analysis. This broader strategy aims to create an ecosystem of AI tools that simplify global trade for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
"At 100% Pure, speed and innovation are everything," said Richard Kostick, CEO of the cruelty-free cosmetics brand and a client of Alibaba's AI tools. "What used to take weeks — researching trends, identifying suppliers, and validating concepts — now happens in a single, intelligent workflow."
While financial details like take rate for the new payment skill were not disclosed, the strategy is clear: embed AI agents across the entire e-commerce and finance workflow. By simplifying complex processes like payment integration and global sourcing, Alibaba aims to increase the stickiness of its platform for millions of merchants on platforms like Taobao, Tmall, and even competitor sites like Amazon.com and TikTok Shop where its clients sell. This could drive long-term transaction volume growth and solidify its leadership in the increasingly competitive AI-driven enterprise market.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
