Chinese fintech firm Ant Group has consolidated its Alipay-related operations into a single business unit as part of a broader push to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its payment and commerce platforms. The reorganisation, announced in an internal letter from CEO Cyril Han Xinyi on Monday, merges Ant’s Digital Payment Business Group, Alipay Business Group, and Zhima Credit Business Group into a new Alipay Business Group.
Wu Minzhi, a long-standing executive at both Ant and Alibaba Group Holding, has been appointed to lead the newly combined unit while also retaining her role as Ant’s chief people officer. According to Han’s message, the restructuring aims to better align technology, product development, and ecosystem capabilities, while strengthening services offered to merchants.
Han emphasized the growing importance of “agentic commerce,” a concept that leverages AI to enable autonomous digital interactions and transactions. “As AI technology advances and industry adoption accelerates, agentic commerce is entering a phase of explosive, large-scale growth,” he wrote. Alipay, which is widely used in China for digital payments, has expanded its AI-based offerings, including AI payments, AI wallets, and an ecosystem connecting various hardware devices to enhance user experience.
The move marks a reversal of a nearly two-year-old division of the Alipay business created in late 2024, when the company split the original Alipay Business Group into separate units focused on payment innovation and user monetization, respectively. With the return to a unified structure, Ant aims to equip users with personal AI wallets and digital life assistants, empower merchants through Alipay’s AI platform, and develop a trusted ecosystem of AI agents.
Ant has been intensifying efforts in agentic AI in recent months. In May, the company launched a suite of AI payment tools, including an AI Wallet integrated into the Alipay app. It also introduced Token Pay, a specialized business-to-business product designed for AI model providers. Earlier in June, Ant unveiled Ab Bao, an interactive AI assistant representing the most significant update to Alipay in two decades, intended to transform the app into a native AI platform featuring autonomous agents.
The consolidation reflects Ant’s strategic focus on preparing for the next generation of digital commerce, centered on AI-driven autonomous interactions with users and merchants. Ant did not immediately respond to requests for comment.