Alibaba readies agentic pay, launches AI Mode – CNBC

Alibaba.com introduced AI Mode, a paid AI search feature for its cross-border marketplace, and outlined plans to enable tokenized U.S. dollar and euro payments in collaboration with JPMorgan, CNBC reports. A contracting tool called “agentic pay” is scheduled for December, aimed at speeding up B2B purchases and settlements.

AI Mode is designed to deepen product and supplier search by allowing buyers to compare vendors on pricing, logistics and production capacity. The company is weighing a subscription at $20 per month or $99 per year, though the price is not finalized. The service is intended to add subscription revenue on top of marketing and other cross-border services. AI Mode runs on Alibaba’s Qwen models.

Kuo Zhang, president of Alibaba.com, said the new AI capabilities are meant to accelerate sourcing and purchasing on the platform. “We feel the urgency that we need to use AI to redesign how people do global trade,” he noted, calling it “a paradigm shift for e-commerce for B2B.”

Alongside the subscription, Alibaba.com plans tokenized payments that represent deposits held at banks in dollars and euros. Tokenized deposits are digital versions of bank money recorded on a blockchain. They differ from stablecoins, which are typically issued by non-banks and backed by assets off a bank’s balance sheet. The goal is to cut the cost and time of cross-border payments that often pass through multiple intermediaries.

In practice, the company expects blockchain rails to let funds move more directly between jurisdictions. Zhang explained that when U.S. or European buyers pay in their home currencies, funds could transfer “simultaneously” to Hong Kong or Singapore and back to China, bypassing several correspondent banks. Alibaba.com plans to work with JPMorgan, which provides tokenization technology for institutional clients. The company will evaluate the use of stablecoins after rolling out tokenized transfers.

The December agentic pay rollout is intended to automate contracting in the B2B buying process. The platform’s AI will convert message threads between buyers and suppliers into draft purchase contracts that both sides review and confirm within the platform, replacing the current process of preparing documents offline and uploading them later. The company expects fewer errors and shorter deal cycles.

Alibaba.com generated more than $3 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year. The B2B unit is among the company’s faster-growing operations but remains smaller than the domestic e-commerce and cloud businesses. The platform has expanded its supplier base beyond China; active suppliers worldwide increased 50% from March to October from a year earlier.

Alibaba has been deploying its Qwen large language models across business lines and is seeking new revenue streams in B2B. Founded in 1999 to connect Chinese sellers with overseas buyers, Alibaba.com now serves suppliers from multiple countries as it grows its cross-border marketplace.