Alibaba Group (BABA) is launching a significant upgrade to its Qwen app, embedding the chatbot more deeply across its ecosystem and enabling it to complete tasks for users.
The update lets users ask Qwen to complete tasks like ordering food or booking flights directly, as the app is now integrated with Alibaba’s ecosystem, including Taobao and Fliggy.
“What we are launching today represents a shift from models that understand to systems that act—deeply connected to real-world services,” Wu Jia, a vice president at Alibaba, said during a launch event in Hangzhou, China, on Thursday.
The Qwen app also debuted a new “task assistant” feature, currently available for invited users.
The upgrade follows a major revamp of the Qwen app two months ago, marking Alibaba’s (BABA) strategic shift toward consumer-facing AI—an area where it had previously trailed domestic competitors ByteDance (BDNCE) and Tencent (TCEHY) while concentrating mainly on enterprise AI services via its cloud business.
