Alibaba integrates AI assistant into Quark app to deepen consumer engagement strategy

Alibaba launched a generative-AI chatbot inside its Quark app, positioning the platform as its central consumer gateway beyond e-commerce. The assistant blends search, conversational recommendations, and productivity tools powered by Tongyi Qianwen models. Executives said the integration aligns with efforts to reclaim user time from ByteDance and Tencent ecosystems. Quark’s MAUs rose 22% year on year, and the feature rollout begins across China this quarter. Analysts view it as a key step to expand data flywheels for Alibaba Cloud and advertising. The company continues restructuring consumer businesses under its AI-first strategy.