Alibaba is launching a service that enables companies to create autonomous AI assistants for digital tasks, positioning itself to lead China’s rapidly growing agentic AI sector amid rising enterprise demand and regulatory challenges.
Alibaba is preparing to roll out a service that will enable companies to build and oversee autonomous AI assistants able to carry out digital tasks with minimal human oversight, a move that positions the group to capitalise on rapid e...
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nterprise demand for so‑called agentic AI in China.
The offering is intended to let corporate customers create agents that automate activities such as data analysis, scheduling, workflow coordination and customer-facing digital support. According to the Arabian Post report, the initiative complements Alibaba’s existing investment in foundation models, notably its Qwen family, which the company has been using to power a range of generative-AI services and to extend capabilities across mobile and desktop environments.
Alibaba’s push comes as domestic appetite for action‑oriented AI has grown sharply after open-source projects such as OpenClaw attracted developer interest by demonstrating how agents can link to applications and perform multi‑step operations automatically. The broader ecosystem is reacting: Tencent and ByteDance have released compatible tools, and several smaller AI firms are racing to niche leadership with specialised models and agentic applications.
The company’s enterprise strategy also mirrors internal corporate targets and recent product launches. According to the South China Morning Post, Alibaba.com has set out to have all its merchants using AI tools by the end of 2025, with more than half of its roughly 200,000 merchants already using such tools weekly. Alibaba International has separately announced new AI agents for global merchants, saying features include automated listing generation and creative image tools and that API usage by Chinese merchants reached more than one billion daily calls by July 2025, a dramatic rise from 2023 figures, according to the company statement.
Industry recognition supplies further momentum for Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud was named a market leader in Omdia’s Agentic AI Development Platform in Asia and Oceania, 2026 report, receiving top marks in categories including context engineering and model support, according to Alibaba Cloud’s press release. Market analysts point to that depth of capabilities as an advantage for enterprises seeking to build production‑grade agents that integrate with corporate data and software stacks.
Market forecasts anticipate explosive growth for agent platforms. Research published by CIW News projects the Chinese AI agent market could expand roughly 75‑fold by 2028, with infrastructure spending rising from about $3.4 billion to more than $23 billion and the sector scaling to over $30 billion globally. The same analysis notes that nearly all CIOs expect to invest in agents, even as only a minority have mature strategies for deployment, underlining both opportunity and implementation risk.
Regulation and security remain significant constraints. Chinese authorities have warned state bodies and some state enterprises against installing certain agent software on official devices because the platforms often require broad permissions to interact with multiple applications and datasets , a concern that regulators say increases the risk of data leakage and external communications. Government guidance illustrates the tightrope Beijing is walking between encouraging technological innovation and preserving information security.
Whether enterprise uptake will determine the long‑term winners is a recurring theme among analysts. Firms are trialling agentic tools for functions ranging from automated coding and workflow monitoring to sales and financial reporting, seeking cost savings and productivity gains. But successful commercialisation will depend on providers’ ability to offer scalable, secure integration with business systems and to demonstrate clear return on investment.
Alibaba’s planned service, therefore, sits at the intersection of several trends: escalating enterprise demand, competitive pressure from other internet giants and startups, rising market expectations for agentic platforms, and a cautious regulatory environment. The company’s cloud and AI investments, its merchant adoption targets and recent product launches signal an intent to convert research advances into enterprise products; industry observers will be watching whether those offerings can meet corporate needs while satisfying regulators’ security concerns.
Source: Noah Wire Services
