Alibaba has escalated the New Year AI fight, committing RMB 3 billion to a “Spring Festival Treats” campaign that turns its Qianwen conversational AI into a transaction-capable assistant across the group's commerce and local services. The plan will link Qianwen with Taobao Flash Sale, Fliggy, Damai, Hema, Tmall Supermarket and Alipay to offer free orders and discounts during the holiday, aiming to convert seasonal traffic into habitual usage.
The move comes as two rivals pursue different routes. Tencent’s Yuanbao app has leaned on cash red envelopes and social virality to drive rapid short-term downloads, echoing the platform plays that helped WeChat dominate a decade ago. ByteDance’s Volcano Engine has tied an AI experience to the Spring Festival Gala, emphasising playful, discoverable AI features that introduce users to new interaction patterns in an entertainment-heavy setting.
What separates Alibaba’s approach is its emphasis on “action” rather than mere chat: Qianwen is being positioned as an agent that can complete real-world tasks — ordering takeout, buying holiday supplies, booking travel — by invoking Alibaba’s logistics and fulfillment capabilities. If the assistant can reliably fulfil transactions, Alibaba expects higher retention and deeper monetisation than a conversational bot that only offers recommendations.
The timing is deliberate. Chinese tech firms treat the 2026 Spring Festival as a watershed moment for AI moving from novelty to everyday utility; the holiday’s intense consumer activity offers a live stress test of scale, reliability and commercial fit. Success will not only win users but also valuable behavioural data and purchase flows that entrench an AI entry point into daily life.
Challenges remain. “Spray-and-pray” cash subsidies can produce large download spikes but leave retention uncertain unless utility is obvious beyond incentives. Integrating AI-driven intent into order fulfilment demands tight alignment across models, front-end UX and back-end logistics; mistakes in accuracy, privacy handling or service delivery could quickly erode trust. Moreover, regulators in China remain attentive to AI safety, consumer protection and platform competition, which could shape permissible tactics and data use.
For rivals, Alibaba’s play raises the stakes. If Qianwen becomes a seamless assistant that moves from conversation to completed commerce, it could set a new standard for what consumers expect from platform AI and force competitors to match not just features but ecosystem reach. The contest is therefore not merely about flashy demos or festive gimmicks, but about who owns the habitual gateway through which billions of transactions and daily tasks flow.
Ultimately, the Spring Festival will reveal whether AI assistants can be more than a novelty: whether they can be trusted, convenient and useful enough to become a new layer of platform lock‑in. Alibaba’s bet is pragmatic — convert high-frequency services into habitual AI usage — but its success hinges on execution across models, products and logistics during the busiest shopping period of the year.