Recently, some users have noticed that when searching for keywords on Alipay, in addition to the familiar services and mini-program entrances, a new "Smart Assistant" feature has been added at a prominent location, providing intelligent response results and a direct entry to available services with one click. Following the announcement in April of the Alipay "Smart Assistant" and the introduction of AI financial管家 and AI就医助理 at the "2024 Digital China Construction Summit" in May, Alipay has further rolled out the "AI Search" feature in June.
Tests by AIbase have revealed that searching for keywords related to government services, healthcare, financial management, and hot events on Alipay triggers AI-provided results and services. Users can directly access government service interfaces, receive financial advice, and understand the context of trending events with one click.
Leveraging the rich services and merchants on Alipay, the Smart Assistant has been designed not only to "think and speak" but also to "act and perform tasks" from its inception. It provides information and direct services across dozens of life scenarios such as dining, entertainment, travel, tourism, administrative tasks, ticket purchasing, and leisure activities.
Search has always been a crucial gateway for users to access the extensive government life services and merchant mini-programs within Alipay. With the integration of AI capabilities, Alipay's search function can better understand the true intentions behind user searches, directly provide the necessary services or content, streamline user steps, and present Alipay's rich services and content more effectively and accurately.
With the integration of AI capabilities and the continuous enrichment of video, live streaming, trending topics, and product-related content within Alipay over the past two years, Alipay has also upgraded the structure of its search results page. The layout is more streamlined, and the content is more diverse. Special search theme pages launched around hot events like the college entrance examination scores and European Cup, daily popular videos, and aggregated live streaming pages with discounts make it more likely for users to find the content they want and receive the services they need.
Xi Qing, the head of Alipay's search business, stated: "The intelligent and content-driven upgrade of Alipay search aims to help users obtain rich, precise, and useful information through smarter searches. It also hopes to make AI technology more accessible to the public, allowing the benefits of technological advancement to reach more people."