🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Alipay’s agent feature builds on a preexisting commerce protocol

• The feature extends a broader plan that has been underway since 2025 1.
• In January 2026, Alipay introduced the Agentic Commerce Trust Protocol, an open technical framework for secure interactions between AI agents and service platforms such as ecommerce and food delivery services 2.
• The protocol lets merchants link AI-native apps, software built mainly for AI interactions, to multiple AI agents through one integration. That can cut development costs 2.
• That move places Alipay in the effort to build payment and trust infrastructure for China’s agentic economy, where AI agents act for users. Meituan, a Chinese food delivery and local services platform, has explored the area since late 2025 3.

Agentic AI intensifies the ‘walled garden’ conflicts of super-apps

• The shift moves activity from graphical app interfaces to conversational agents that carry out multi-step tasks for users. Researchers describe the idea as delegation rather than convenience 3.
• That opens a race to become the main AI agent for users, while running into the closed ecosystems of large tech platforms 4.
• ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, placed its Doubao AI agent at the operating-system level. Alibaba and Tencent blocked it over concerns about data access and in-app actions 4.
• Useful AI agents need access across platforms. Dominant platform companies still resist giving up control, which may favor Chinese firms with tightly linked ecosystems over more fragmented Western rivals 5.