Alipay bets on the agentic economy with launch of AI Wallet and Token Pay

The launch, announced by parent company Ant Group, reflects a broader industry shift in which artificial intelligence is evolving from a customer support tool into an autonomous commercial actor capable of searching, negotiating and transacting on behalf of consumers.

At the centre of the announcement is Alipay’s new AI Wallet, designed to provide users with greater visibility and control over payments initiated by AI agents.

The product allows consumers to oversee transactions before they are executed, monitor activity during payment flows and review spending behaviour afterwards.

The development highlights a growing challenge for the payments industry: ensuring trust, transparency and security as AI agents begin acting independently within commerce ecosystems.

Payments Move From Checkout Function to Embedded Capability

The strategic significance of the launch lies less in the wallet itself and more in how Alipay views the future role of payments infrastructure.

Historically, payments have functioned as the final step in a transaction journey. However, in an AI-driven environment, payment functionality increasingly becomes embedded within the decision-making process itself.

Lin Zhu, general manager of Alipay’s AI payment business, argues that AI agents are rapidly becoming active participants in commerce, helping users search for products, make purchases, order services and manage subscriptions autonomously.

This creates new demands for payment providers. AI systems require programmable, machine-readable payment rails capable of operating instantly, securely and globally without continuous human intervention.

To support this transition, Alipay also launched Token Pay, a dedicated infrastructure layer aimed at AI model companies and developers. The platform is designed to handle global subscription billing, token top-ups and other transaction requirements associated with AI applications.

The company says Token Pay offers a full-stack commercialisation layer for AI businesses seeking to monetise services internationally.

China Emerges as Testing Ground for Agentic Commerce

The scale of Alipay’s AI ambitions is notable. The company claims its AI-native payment infrastructure has already surpassed 300 million transactions and supports approximately 95% of OpenClaw-style AI agents operating within China’s digital ecosystem.

Use cases already extend beyond traditional mobile commerce into AI-powered smart glasses, intelligent vehicle cockpits, mini-program ecosystems and autonomous shopping assistants.

China’s digital economy may prove uniquely suited to this evolution. Consumers are already deeply accustomed to integrated “super-app” ecosystems where payments, messaging, retail and services coexist within a single interface.

For merchants, however, the implications are profound. AI agents do not behave like traditional online shoppers. They do not browse websites, compare product descriptions or respond to conventional advertising techniques. Instead, they evaluate structured data, pricing, availability and fulfilment capabilities algorithmically and at machine speed.

As agentic commerce accelerates, merchants lacking AI-compatible infrastructure risk becoming invisible within automated purchasing ecosystems.

For the global payments industry, Alipay’s latest move offers an early glimpse into how commerce may function when machines — rather than humans — increasingly become the primary participants in transactional activity.