Key Takeaways Alibaba plans to rename its "Tongyi" AI apps to "Qwen" to align with its flagship AI model brand. The company will integrate agentic-AI shopping features across platforms including the T...
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is preparing a comprehensive transformation of its flagship mobile artificial intelligence application in the coming months, marking a significant strategic shift as the Chinese tech giant aims to compete more directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT and monetize its consumer AI offerings.
The e-commerce conglomerate plans to rebrand its existing "Tongyi" applications on iOS and Android platforms as "Qwen," matching the name of Alibaba's well-established AI model family, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss confidential plans.
The revamp represents a crucial component of Alibaba's broader strategy to close the gap with competitors in the consumer AI space and eventually generate revenue from individual users.
The company intends to gradually introduce agentic-AI capabilities that will enable enhanced shopping experiences across its platforms, particularly its main Taobao marketplace, in the months ahead.
While the company has invested heavily in developing its Qwen model family—which has been downloaded more than 40 million times and spawned over 100,000 derivative models—its previous consumer-facing AI applications have struggled to gain significant traction.
Data from September showed that the Tongyi app had approximately 7 million monthly active users, far behind leading consumer AI applications.
Alibaba has already demonstrated strong momentum with its Qwen AI model family, which includes the latest Qwen3 generation featuring support for 119 languages and dialects.
The company launched Qwen2.5-Max in January 2025, with internal benchmarks suggesting competitive performance against other foundation models, including GPT-4o and DeepSeek-V3.
The company's e-commerce platforms have also been leveraging AI capabilities extensively.
Taobao and Tmall have deployed AI-powered tools, including the "Wenwen" shopping assistant, which launched in beta in September 2023 as the first full integration of AI into a consumer e-commerce application in China.
The platform has also introduced AI-enhanced product listings, AI-powered search and recommendations, and visual generation tools for merchants.
The planned app transformation aligns with Alibaba's substantial commitment to artificial intelligence development.
In February 2025, the company announced a three-year investment plan of approximately $53 billion in AI infrastructure, including data centers and accelerated computing capabilities.
Alibaba has reported early positive returns on its AI investments in e-commerce.
In October 2025, Kaifu Zhang, Vice President of Alibaba Group, stated that preliminary testing showed consistent results from AI integration, including a 12% increase in returns on advertising spend—a metric Zhang described as representing rare double-digit improvements in such testing.
During the 2025 Singles Day shopping festival, Alibaba's first large-scale deployment of generative AI in e-commerce demonstrated a measurable impact.
The company reported double-digit improvements in result relevance for complex queries and double-digit lifts in click-through rates for certain recommendation scenarios.
AI-enhanced product images also achieved a 25% improvement in click-through rates compared to original photos.
The rebranding to Qwen positions Alibaba to leverage the growing recognition of its AI model family among developers and enterprises.
The Qwen models have gained traction in the open-source community and are used across multiple industries, from consumer electronics to gaming.
The company has released more than 100 open-weight models, though some of its most advanced models, such as Qwen2.5-Max, remain proprietary and accessible only through APIs.
However, Alibaba faces formidable competition from both international players like OpenAI and domestic rivals.
Chinese AI startups, including Moonshot, which is backed by Alibaba, have also been releasing competitive models.
The company's ability to successfully transform its consumer AI application while integrating shopping functionality could prove critical to its strategy of differentiating itself in the crowded AI assistant market.
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