Tencent Holdings is secretly building a new AI agent for its hugely popular WeChat messaging app, in hopes of leapfrogging rivals like Alibaba Group and ByteDance in the race to dominate China’s domestic AI market, according to four people familiar with the project. The project could dramatically widen how AI agents, which take actions on behalf of people, are used in China, where WeChat is ubiquitous in people’s daily lives.
The new agent would connect with the millions of miniprograms—lightweight apps—running inside WeChat that provide scores of services, from booking taxis to ordering groceries, according to three of the four people. If it works, the agent could undertake those tasks on behalf of WeChat’s 1.4 billion monthly active users.
