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Artificial intelligence
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How Chinese tech giants from Ant to Tencent use AI agents to win over enterprise clients

Top AI summit spotlights race to embed autonomous digital workers into everyday business operations

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People visit the Tencent booth at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 18. Photo: AFP
Ann Caoin Shanghai
Chinese tech giants are doubling down on enterprise artificial intelligence agents with new products unveiled at the country’s top AI summit, signalling heightened domestic rivalry to win over business clients as agent-based AI adoption accelerates.
At the four-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai which concludes on Monday, major tech companies including Ant Group, Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu launched or showcased offerings designed to integrate AI into real-world enterprise operations.

Ant Digital Technologies, the digital technology arm of Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group, on Sunday unveiled “Agentar 2.0”, a platform described as a “commercial AI agent super factory”.

The system, upgraded from a version launched last year, featured 200 pre-configured “digital expert templates” and hundreds of out-of-the-box agent tools, enabling companies to deploy autonomous AI workers without building them from scratch, according to Ant Digital.

Ant Group CEO Cyril Han Xinyi said on Sunday the company was seeking to create AI agents that could restructure enterprise workflows rather than simply accelerate individual tasks.

Humanoid robots are displayed at the Ant Group booth at WAIC on July 17. Photo: Reuters
Humanoid robots are displayed at the Ant Group booth at WAIC on July 17. Photo: Reuters

“This shifts the focus from individual efficiency to a wholesale upgrade of the organisation’s collective productivity,” Han said. “We believe this is where the ultimate value lies.”

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