Alibaba.com eyes AI services, tokenized payments with JP Morgan

Alibaba.com plans to introduce AI-powered subscription services and explore tokenized payments, possibly involving JP Morgan.

It has launched “AI Mode,” an advanced search tool priced at US$20 per month or US$99 per year, and will roll out an “agentic pay” feature in December that uses AI to draft contracts from buyer-supplier conversations.

The company aims to improve global payment efficiency using digital tokenized euros and US dollars for faster transfers with fewer intermediaries, and may partner with JP Morgan for these solutions.

Alibaba.com reported over US$3 billion in revenue last fiscal year and a 50% rise in active suppliers worldwide from March to October.

🔗 Source: CNBC

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Tokenized payments face unclear integration timeline and infrastructure gaps

Alibaba.com’s tokenized payment plan lacks clear timing and scope. J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys, a blockchain-based wholesale payments and tokenization network, has cleared over $1.5 trillion with roughly $2 billion a day 1. Open questions cover jurisdictions, expected volumes, and whether Application Programming Interface (API) access will reach third-party marketplaces.
On-chain foreign exchange (FX) settlement for U.S. dollar (USD) and euro (EUR) is slated for Q1 2025 1. Kinexys promotes enterprises such as Siemens and BlackRock without public proof of business-to-business (B2B) marketplace payment flows 2. Without live e-commerce flows, the agentic pay launch in December looks aggressive for blockchain integration.
Kinexys moves funds for banks 3. Marketplace checkout runs on different rails. Bridging those systems could push delivery past early targets.

Business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces need fast AI contract drafting to stay competitive

Alibaba.com’s AI Mode and agentic pay raise the bar for rivals. Procurement software grew 11.4% to $6.6 billion in 2024 4. SAP Ariba and Coupa embed generative AI (GenAI) across sourcing and contracting 5.
92% of Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) plan GenAI investment in 2024 6 so mid-market tools such as Precoro, Kissflow, and Tradogram risk losing deals if they lack AI contract drafting as buyers expect contracts from platform chats 7.
Vendors and AI middleware providers can go after the 63% of procurement teams not yet piloting GenAI 6 with plug-and-play contract intelligence that ties into procure-to-pay suites for small and midsize business (SMB) platforms.