At the 2026 INCLUSION Conference on the Bund held recently, Alibaba's Alipay announced a strategic shift in its AI payment capabilities, moving from a focus on "payability" toward building "trusted payments." According to Alipay's latest data, the volume of AI agent purchase tasks has surged sevenfold over the past five months, while the average monthly payment frequency per user has tripled during the same period.
Ant Group CEO Han Xinyi emphasized that AI payment is not merely the final step in a transaction but serves as the trusted commitment engine for the entire agent-based commerce ecosystem. In line with this vision, Alipay is set to introduce an AI Wallet Agent, designed to act as a personal ally for users navigating the intelligent agent world. This agent will possess complete contextual awareness of each transaction, seamlessly connecting a user's initial intent and budget requirements with the agent's execution process and final transaction outcomes. It will only authorize the payment after thorough risk assessment and confirmation that the transaction aligns with the user's explicit authorization.
Building upon its previously unveiled comprehensive AI payment product suite, Alipay's "AI Receive" capabilities now include three new functions: Vibe Pay, Skill Pay, and Machine Pay. These are tailored to support a range of digital commerce scenarios, including AI application creation, skill monetization, and machine-to-machine connectivity.
Leveraging these upgraded AI payment capabilities, Alipay has also developed three new scenario-based features designed for e-commerce platforms. The first, AI Cycle Purchase, allows users to authorize agents to order products at fixed intervals. The second, AI Price Drop Purchase, enables users to set target prices, with the agent automatically placing orders when the price falls below the predetermined threshold. The third, AI Restock Purchase, grants agents the authority to automatically place orders when targeted products are listed or restocked.
AI payment is also facilitating the entry of new technological innovations into real-world commercial settings. For instance, users of the Qianwen AI glasses can complete payments through iris recognition with a simple glance. Similarly, users of the future viaim AI earbuds can perform tasks such as mobile top-ups, parking fee payments, and coffee orders through voice commands. Furthermore, embodied intelligence products are integrating AI payment capabilities, progressively bridging the "last mile" for robots to operate within the physical commercial world.
In a notable demonstration, the GaoDe momentum-powered robot dog, named "Tutu," has made the concept of "dog-assisted shopping" a reality. With user authorization, "Tutu" can handle the entire purchase process, including price inquiry, order placement, payment, and item retrieval, ultimately bringing the goods back to the user. This provides a tangible and convenient new shopping experience.
APASS, a trust infrastructure developed by Ant Group for agent-based commercial activities, is based on the KYA (Know Your Agent) principle. It establishes a dual trust chain incorporating both "identity and behavior," offering capabilities such as agent identity registration, continuous verification, intent security, and trusted evidence storage. In this iteration, APASS has been applied to Alipay's AI payment system. When an agent initiates a payment, the system continuously evaluates its identity, transaction intent, and authorization boundaries. Transactions are executed only when they are deemed trustworthy and within the scope of authorization; requests for user confirmation are triggered when any doubts arise; and transactions are refused when clear authorization violations are detected, leaving a traceable and credible record.
Recently, two major international card organizations, Visa and Mastercard, have begun collaborating with the Alipay+ payment interconnection network to explore the interoperability of the KYA framework. Additionally, Alipay and Ant International have jointly introduced a one-stop commercial operation system for AI developers, offering payment services that cover over 200 countries and regions with a single integration. Through protocols such as ACT and AMP, along with identity interoperability, this system aims to further serve a global base of 2 billion users and 150 million merchants.
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