Alibaba is reshaping its AI strategy around AI agents, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Alibaba has recently decided to separate its AI business from its cloud unit. The launch of the "Alibaba Token Hub" business group led by CEO Eddie Wu (우 에디) signals that the company is shifting its focus to AI model-based digital assistants that consume far more tokens than existing chatbots, Reuters reported.

Alibaba AI chatbot Qwen now goes beyond answering questions, allowing users to make purchases directly through a chat interface. In related moves, Alibaba began the first phase of a 3 billion yuan ($435.7 million) coupon campaign in February. Users can buy items on Alibaba-affiliated commerce platforms using chatbot commands alone.

Brian Wong (브라이언 웡), a former Alibaba employee and author, points to the breadth of Alibaba’s ecosystem, spanning e-commerce, food delivery, travel and movie ticketing. "It is a structure that runs all these functions with a single chatbot," he said. "It is like integrating OpenAI, Amazon, Stripe, Uber, DoorDash, Ticketmaster, Expedia, Netflix and Charles Schwab into a single text window and executing them in natural language," he said.

Ed Sander (에드 샌더), an analyst at China Digital Retail Report, said, "Alibaba has internalised fulfilment and logistics, and runs everything on cloud infrastructure." "No company other than Alibaba can execute the entire process in-house from chatbot to logistics," he said.

Alibaba also recently unveiled its enterprise AI platform, Wukong. Wukong supports handling complex tasks from a single interface by coordinating multiple AI agents, including document editing, spreadsheet updates, meeting transcription and research.

An agent-centred strategy is closely tied to boosting profitability. Po Zhao (포 자오), an analyst and founder of Hello China Tech, said, "Agents judge and execute 24 hours a day, and consume tens to hundreds of times more tokens than typical chat sessions."