Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group launched a brand new AI-powered healthcare app on June 26, 2025.
Ant Group
BEIJING — Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group is doubling down on well being care with a brand new smartphone app, primarily based on synthetic intelligence expertise that the corporate says may very well be rolled out abroad.
It is the most recent signal of how China-developed AI is shortly constructing client purposes. Ant, operator of the favored Alipay cellular funds app, has targeted a lot of its AI growth efforts on well being care primarily based on giant language fashions from DeepSeek, Alibaba and Ant.
In a telling signal of world aspirations, the brand new health-care app launched on Thursday has an easy English title — AQ — which stands for “reply your query,” mentioned Zhang Junjie, common supervisor of health-care enterprise at Alipay.
Customers can seek the advice of AI avatars of real-life medical specialists earlier than getting precedence entry for a diagnostic appointment or hospital care if the scenario is critical sufficient, he mentioned. AQ can faucet greater than 5,000 hospitals and almost 1 million medical doctors in China, based on Ant.
Whereas Ant’s focus is on the mainland China marketplace for now, the brand new app or its tech may very well be licensed out to a 3rd occasion, Zhang mentioned, with out specifying a timeframe. He mentioned many foreigners in China have already used a pilot model of the app, and that Ant plans to launch variations of the app in different languages.
Chinese language corporations from startups to extra established corporations resembling Tencent and Ping An Insurance coverage have lengthy sought to capitalize on the mixing of web and software program with well being care. Within the final a number of months, U.S.-based tech giants resembling Microsoft and Amazon.com have additionally introduced progress on AI-powered health-care instruments.
In China, a big knowledge pool and nationwide emphasis on digitalization have helped present a basis for AI-powered health-care features, in accordance to a report final month from the Cheung Kong Graduate College of Enterprise. It identified that China’s nationwide medical insurance system covers greater than 95% of the nation’s 1.4 billion individuals, whereas about 70% of hospitals have digital record-keeping methods.
A confirmed person base
Alipay is without doubt one of the two main cellular funds apps in mainland China. Along with funds, the app can be utilized to pay the water invoice, hail a taxi or order groceries from Alibaba’s grocery store chain.
The funds app has additionally branched into well being care during the last decade, with options resembling permitting customers to digitally make an appointment at one in every of China’s notoriously crowded public hospitals, as an alternative of getting to attend in line for a ticket.
These Alipay health-care providers have already reached almost 800 million customers in China, Zhang mentioned.
The standalone AQ app incorporates these options, together with AI-powered features resembling physician suggestions, medical report evaluation and customized medical recommendation.
Alipay has expanded to customers outdoors China, as has its cellular funds rival WeChat.
— Correction: This story was up to date to replicate the proper variety of customers in China that Alipay health-care providers have reached.
