Alipay has reached a dead end in the “AI Internet”

Driven by the wave of digitalization, Alipay, as a leader in financial technology, is standing at the crossroads of AI applications. When the wave of AI sweeps in, the "Zhi Xiao Bao" launched by Alipay is not only a display of AI ambitions, but also a profound reflection on the traditional Internet model. In the fog of AI Internet, can Alipay find a new direction and lead financial technology into a new era?

If we are looking for the theme of this year's Bund Summit, AI is undoubtedly the one that should be chosen.

As the protagonist of the Bund Summit, Alipay also launched a series of new AI-based applications.

"Zhi Xiaobao" is one of Alipay's series of new AI applications.

It has to be said that when the "Ali veterans" represented by Joseph Tsai and Wu Yongming began to return to Alibaba, Alibaba had already begun a frenzy to actively embrace AI.

Alipay's series of actions in embracing AI are undoubtedly a direct reflection of such a phenomenon.

However, when AI-based intelligent dialogue has become the standard for almost all players, Alipay launched "Zhi Xiaobao" at such a time. In addition to demonstrating its ambition in AI, perhaps what it shows us more is that it is following suit.

Whether it is the maturity of Wenxin Yiyan, the continuous upgrading and evolution of ChatGPT, or even other players at home and abroad starting to bring the application of AI into a new stage, all of them tell us that the implementation and application of AI has entered a new stage.

It is at such a moment that Alipay is using AI dialogue, the focus of competition among players in the previous cycle, to highlight its layout and application in AI, which is a bit too slow.

It is foreseeable that if Alipay continues to follow suit and lacks the attitude of a leader in the Internet era, then Alipay's leading advantage in the field of financial technology may be surpassed by players such as WeChat Pay and JD Pay.

Therefore, through Alipay’s launch of “Zhi Xiaobao”, we cannot just see Alipay’s layout in AI, but we should see more of Alipay’s lag and slowness in AI application.

1. The era of AI traffic has long passed

Through the "Zhi Xiaobao" launched by Alipay, we can clearly see that it has a clear thread.

In other words, Alipay wants to use the new AI experience to activate users and even acquire new users, so that Alipay can maintain its current size.

However, we must also see that the era of C-end traffic based on AI has long passed. Whether it is Wenxin Yiyan in China or ChatGPT abroad, the traffic growth model dominated by C-end traffic has entered a bottleneck period.

For Alipay, it chose to launch a human-computer dialogue application like "Zhi Xiaobao" at such a time. Apart from being able to play a certain role in activating its own users, it has almost no benefit in expanding users and traffic.

From this perspective, "Zhi Xiaobao" launched by Alipay is more like a self-entertainment under Alipay's original traffic system, lacking the confidence to compete with the top players in the entire industry.

In the short term, the "Zhi Xiaobao" launched by Alipay may play a certain role in activating the traffic within its ecosystem. However, when the novelty of Zhi Xiaobao has worn off, especially when users feel that the experience of Zhi Xiaobao is not as good as other applications, people's attitude towards Alipay's layout in AI may become as indifferent as people's previous feelings towards Alipay.

After all, when it comes to the layout of AI, Alipay only focuses on traffic, which is obviously contrary to the current trend of AI development.

For Alipay, if it only views AI from the perspective of C-end traffic, and fails to find the connection between AI and the financial technology in which Alipay is located, then Alipay's layout in AI may end up in failure, just like its previous layout in social, content and other aspects.

2. The B-side era of AI has arrived

When large models began to emerge like mushrooms after a rain, and when various AI robots began to become standard equipment for almost all Internet players, the era of simply using AI as an entry point to obtain C-end traffic has long passed, and the era of truly using AI to transform and empower the B-end is coming.

Ultimately, AI still needs to be combined with B-side industries to truly maximize its functions and roles.

It is precisely because of this that we begin to see more and more people beginning to view this year as the first year of AI implementation and application.

For today's AI players, they are no longer competing in the ability to lay out large models, but are starting to compete in the ability to implement and apply AI in real business and scenarios.

For players like Alipay, an important aspect that they should really consider is how to use the power of AI to transform the financial technology industry, thereby making the operation of financial technology safer and more efficient.

However, at a time when the B-end era has already arrived, Alipay has focused its attention on the C-end. Obviously, it has gone against the current trend of AI development.

We can see some clues in this regard from the implementation and application of AI by players represented by Tencent and JD.

Different from Alipay which focuses solely on the C-end, we have seen players represented by Tencent and JD.com focusing more on the B-end and wanting to find new development opportunities by deeply empowering the B-end.

For example, Tencent Cloud has currently built a full-stack domestic software system including database TDSQL, operating system TencentOS, private cloud TCE, big data TBDS, etc., which is fully adapted to the mainstream domestic software and hardware ecosystem, and has accumulated rich implementation practices in financial fields such as banking, insurance, securities, and financial holding companies.

In terms of AI big models, Tencent Cloud has built the HCC high-performance computing cluster, launched the one-stop big model training platform TI platform, and trained a big model for the financial industry based on the Hunyuan general big model. It can provide financial institutions with applications covering multiple key areas such as front-end, middle-end, back-end and integrated operations.

For example, since the first half of the year, JD Cloud has used JD Cloud Yanxi's self-developed AI-driven large-posture digital human technology to launch the industry's first live broadcast of digital humans of founders of major Internet companies. At the 2024 JD Cloud Summit, JD Cloud has made new moves, launching eight major products in one go, including enterprise large model services, Yanxi intelligent body platform, intelligent programming assistant JoyCoder, Yanxi digital human 3.0, etc., to show the industry JD's exploration of the "last mile" of large models.

It can be said that players represented by Tencent and JD.com are now exploring more about the deep integration of AI and the financial technology industry, rather than simply viewing AI as a marketing tool to gain traffic.

If Alipay still fails to see the development potential released by AI's transformation and empowerment of the B-side, and only regards AI as a coat without making a deep transformation of financial technology from the most basic logic, then Alipay may lose the "first half" of AI implementation and application just like it lost the "second half" of mobile Internet.

3. Alipay enters the fog of "AI Internet"

Whether it is from Zhixiaobao or Ant Financial, we can see that Alipay’s involvement in AI has a strong Internet flavor.

After all, Alipay is still using the Internet's thinking logic to carry out AI-related layouts.

After all, when Alipay wants to use AI, it actually wants to build an Internet-style platform or a traffic aggregation center, but it has not really used AI to turn the tangible into the intangible and hide itself in thousands of industries.

Whether it's AI running errands, buying coffee and booking tickets by speaking, or AI recommending products and services that users need, or even AI health managers, we can see that Alipay is still continuing its previous Internet routines and strategies when it comes to deploying AI.

After all, Alipay is still mired in the fog of “AI Internet”.

It is conceivable that if Alipay merely wants to use AI to maintain its Internet model and status, if Alipay merely regards AI as a gimmick and marketing tool, but does not really break out of the Internet's development model and clichés, then even if Alipay shouts that it wants to embrace AI, it still only regards AI as a cover, but does not really use AI to transform itself.

For Alipay, if it lacks the courage to completely break away from the Internet model and if it only uses AI to maintain its own Internet status, then when AI is completely integrated with the industry, especially when AI truly becomes a new type of infrastructure and incubates new business models, Alipay may further lose the advantages it has established in the Internet era.

How to use AI to break the problems and drawbacks of Alipay's Internet model, especially using AI to find new solutions for Alipay, may be the key to truly bringing its own development into a new stage.

On the contrary, if Alipay continues to focus its AI layout on the models and procedures of the Internet, it will not only lose the new opportunity for Alibaba to actively embrace AI, but will also further widen the gap between it and other competitors.

By that time, Alipay may face greater problems and challenges if it wants to get through the fog of "AI Internet".

IV. Conclusion

As for Alipay, it has actually been a step behind in its layout of AI.

However, what is even more unfortunate is that Alipay still sees AI as a way and method to obtain C-end traffic, and still sees AI as a tool to maintain its own Internet model.

If Alipay is still obsessed with traffic when the implementation and application of AI has already entered the deep water zone and lacks a deep understanding of the financial technology industry in which it is located, then Alipay's embrace of AI may still be just a slogan.

Breaking away from merely viewing AI as a gimmick and marketing tool and truly viewing AI as something that can bring about radical changes to one's own business model and operating logic may be the key for Alipay to make a comeback in AI.

If Alipay is still obsessed with the dream of the Internet and lacks a correct understanding of AI, perhaps AI will not only fail to become the starting point for Alipay, but will also become its Waterloo.