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Ant Group's Han Xinyi: The Agent Era Is Here

At the 2026 Inclusion·Bund Conference, Han Xinyi, CEO of Ant Group, made a bold claim: the "ChatGPT moment" for intelligent agent business has fully arrived. In her keynote, she argued that agents have moved beyond novelty and are now deeply embedded in real transactions, becoming the primary commercial gateway between user needs and actual supply.

From Clicks to Conversations

Remember when ChatGPT first showed us what natural language interaction could feel like? That was late 2022. Fast forward to today, and the game has changed again. Users aren't just chatting with AI—they're handing over their real-life needs, from booking flights to buying groceries. This shift is rewriting the starting point of commerce.

Traditional business models? They relied on standardized products, fixed pages, and a whole lot of ad spend. But in the agent era, the starting point is the user's core intent. Merchants won't compete for traffic and display space anymore; they'll compete to be the most trustworthy, best-matching service provider that a user's agent can find.

Zhu Lin, General Manager of AI Payment at Ant Group, shared some eye-opening numbers: with the AI boom and smart devices everywhere, natural new interaction payments could exceed 50% of all transactions within five years. And payments via diverse smart devices? Expect a tenfold jump.

Three Hurdles to Clear

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. For agent commerce to scale, the industry must tackle three fundamental challenges:

  1. Service discovery: How can services be accurately understood and called by agents?
  2. Transaction completion: Can agents genuinely assist users in completing purchases?
  3. Trust and accountability: Who authorizes, manages risks, and takes responsibility after the transaction?

These aren't trivial questions. Who does the agent represent? Where are the authorization boundaries? How do we manage fund security and fraud? And when something goes wrong, who's liable? These need clear answers.

Han Xinyi sees AI payment as far more than just paying on behalf of users or simple auto-deductions. She calls it a "trusted commitment engine" for agent commerce—a system that ensures the entire transaction process is authorized, manageable, controllable, and traceable. That way, users can entrust with confidence, and merchants can connect boldly, building a sustainable ecosystem together.

A 10 Million Yuan Bet

To accelerate this vision, Ant Group announced a 10 million yuan development fund for life intelligent agent developers, with individual rewards reaching up to 1 million yuan annually. It's a clear signal: if agents can truly handle payments and transactions, the entire commercial ecosystem will experience a comprehensive burst of growth.

So, are we ready to let AI handle our wallets? The technology is here. The question is whether trust can keep pace.

Key Points:

  • Han Xinyi, CEO of Ant Group, declares the ChatGPT moment for intelligent agent business has arrived.
  • Intelligent agents are now engaging in real transactions, shifting commerce from traffic-driven to intent-driven.
  • AI payment could account for over 50% of transactions within five years, with smart device payments growing tenfold.
  • Three challenges remain: service discoverability, transaction completion, and trust/accountability.
  • Ant Group launches a 10 million yuan fund to support agent developers, with rewards up to 1 million yuan per year.