Ant Group pushes AI healthcare in China’s $69b market

Ant Group is focusing on AI-driven healthcare to support its growth after scaling back plans following a failed IPO attempt.

The healthcare sector in China was valued at about 480 billion yuan (US$69 billion) in 2025, according to research firm AskCI.

The company aims to reach most of China’s 1.4 billion population with its health services within three years, elevating its health unit to the same level as its payments and lending operations.

Its strategy includes AI doctor agents—digital avatars trained by physicians to handle routine inquiries—and an app called AQ, which aggregates health data and connects users to medical services.

Since launching AQ in June 2025, the app has become popular, with over 30 million monthly active users submitting around 10 million questions daily.

Ant has trained more than 1,000 doctors to develop these avatars, which handled over 27 million inquiries last year.

The company has not disclosed revenue figures for its healthcare business.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

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Ant’s AI health strategy extends beyond the app to underserved regions

Ant Group is pushing deeper into healthcare as it shifts toward an “AI company.” The chief technology officer (CTO) called artificial intelligence the driver for entering the sector 1.
The plan leans on a long link between Ant’s consumer services and healthcare. About 70% of medical payments in China already run through Ant’s Alipay platform 1.
AQ’s growth comes largely from outside big urban centers. Around 60% of its 140 million users live in smaller cities, often described in China as third-tier cities and below 2.
The service now uses the name Ant A-Fu (“Ant Afu”) in China. It includes more than 100 AI-powered features such as medical report analysis plus integration with wearables (connected health-tracking devices such as smartwatches), which goes beyond the AI doctor agents, digital avatars trained by physicians to handle routine inquiries 3 2.

Regulatory walls keep AI in a health manager role

Rules steer AQ toward routine inquiries. Regulators in Beijing and provinces like Hunan have banned AI from automatically generating prescriptions, plus they restrict AI from replacing doctors for diagnosis and treatment services 4 5.
As a result, AQ acts as a frequent-touch health management product. It gathers large amounts of user data to train stronger AI models, which can help Ant defend its position 6.
That setup adds an AI assistant layer that takes on repetitive tasks. One physician said AI health apps can ease part of the repeated workload from basic pregnancy-related questions 6.
Ant’s CTO said the company planned an English version of AQ aimed at the global market 1.