Ant Group consolidates Alipay operations in big bet on AI ‘agentic commerce’

Agentic commerce is entering a phase of ‘explosive, large-scale growth’, Ant CEO Cyril Han Xinyi said in an internal letter on Monday

Chinese fintech giant Ant Group has revamped its online payments operations by creating a new business group for Alipay, as it sharpens its artificial intelligence focus on “agentic commerce” to drive new growth.

Ant, an Alibaba Group Holding affiliate, merged its Digital Payment Business Group, Alipay Business Group and Zhima Credit Business Group into a new business unit dedicated to Alipay, according to an internal letter from CEO Cyril Han Xinyi on Monday, according to a report by Chinese media outlet The Beijing News .

The company also appointed Wu Minzhi, a veteran executive at Ant and previously at Alibaba, to lead the new Alipay Business Group while serving as Ant’s chief people officer.

The restructuring aimed to “further consolidate technology, product and ecosystem capabilities and strengthen the merchant service system”, Han said in the letter.