Alipay has launched the Agentic Commerce Trust Protocol in collaboration with several partners, including Alibaba’s own consumer-facing AI application Qwen App, Taobao Instant Commerce, Rokid, Damai, and Alibaba Cloud’s Bailian platform.
The joint initiative represents China’s first open technology protocol framework designed specifically for agentic commerce. Chinese tech companies are the ones most actively rooting for global cross-industry collaboration around open-source AI models, as CES 2026 revealed. Alipay’s Agentic Commerce Trust Protocol is one example of open contributions enhancing an AI protocol.
The Protocol is intended to establish a standardized framework that enables secure and efficient collaboration between AI applications and service platforms, such as e-commerce and food delivery services. By providing a common technical language, it supports AI interactions across multiple devices, systems, and platforms while maintaining consistent security standards.
Under the Protocol, merchants are able to connect AI-native applications with multiple AI agents through a single integration. This approach removes the need for separate and complex API development for each connection, helping to reduce technical complexity and integration costs. For users, the Protocol is designed to streamline the shopping process by enabling more seamless interactions while preserving transaction security.
On January 15, the Qwen App became the first platform to adopt the Protocol, integrating with Taobao Instant Commerce and Alipay’s AI-enabled payment services. Through this integration, users can place food and beverage orders directly within the Qwen App by interacting with its AI interface, without switching between multiple applications. The AI assists by recommending nearby options, comparing prices, applying available promotions, and completing payments via Alipay within a single conversational flow.
The Protocol currently supports two payment modes. The first is instant payment, which is designed for high-frequency purchases such as food delivery and everyday shopping. This mode allows users to interact with AI in real time, review recommendations, and confirm payment within the same conversation. The second mode is delegated authorization, which enables users to define parameters such as spending limits, preferred merchants, and timing. Based on these pre-set conditions, the AI can automatically monitor relevant offerings and complete transactions without further user input, a feature suited to scenarios such as travel and hotel bookings.
Alipay plans to continue expanding the Protocol by working with payment service providers, merchants, platform operators, AI developers, and smart device manufacturers, with the aim of supporting a broader ecosystem for trusted AI-enabled commerce.
While being the first agentic payment protocol in China, Alipay’s Agentic Commerce Trust Protocol is also complementing the number of global agentic payment protocols being developed by Google, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, along with other major fintech players.
