The Tamesis
Chinese tech giant Tencent wants to bring artificial intelligence agents to its WeChat social media app, its president said on Wednesday.
The move proposed by Martin Lau is significant because it could change the way hundreds of millions of Chinese users interact with domestic and foreign platforms.
Agents are programs that perform real-life tasks, such as sending an email or booking a flight. They are hailed as the next frontier of artificial intelligence after chatbots like ChatGPT.
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Their integration into WeChat could change how people in the world’s second-largest economy use so-called “super apps” that already boast social messaging, digital payments and a long list of other features.
Tencent, the world’s largest video game publisher, reported on Wednesday that full-year net profit rose 16%, with gaming remaining its main business driver even as it expands its artificial intelligence business.
In recent years, the company has sought to integrate artificial intelligence into WeChat, known as WeChat in China.
“We hope to create artificial intelligence agents in WeChat, which can take advantage of WeChat’s close connection with users,” Liu told reporters.
“It will be a highly diverse ecosystem covering mini programs, content, commerce, social networks and payments,” Liu added, but did not disclose details such as when the service would be launched.
On Wednesday, Tencent said net profit in 2025 would reach 224.8 billion yuan ($32.6 billion), exceeding the 221.9 billion yuan expected in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
The company owns popular esports developers including League of Legends and has sizable businesses in other areas from cloud computing to entertainment.
Although it is China’s most valuable technology company, Tencent has so far been seen as a cautious AI player, despite founder Ma Huateng’s vow to increase investment in the field.
“Our highly resilient and cash-generating core business provides us with the resources to fund our increasing investments in artificial intelligence,” Ma said in a statement on Wednesday.
Interest in OpenClaw
Like rivals Alibaba, Baidu and ByteDance, Tencent has recently entered the AI agent space with its WorkBuddy app.
The Shenzhen-based company is also among Chinese tech giants racing to capitalize on rising interest in China. Open claws – An AI agent platform created by an Austrian programmer that has the tech world enchanted.
Tencent and other companies are offering simplified installation and affordable coding plans to help users host OpenClaw agents on cloud servers.
Earlier this month, the company’s cloud computing unit organized an OpenClaw installation event at its headquarters that attracted more than 1,000 people, and similar events are planned across China.
Tencent said that the increasing capabilities of major big language artificial intelligence models and the increasing capabilities of artificial intelligence agent tools such as WorkBuddy and new product QClaw “are encouraging early signs that these investments will unlock new opportunities.”
risk assessment
The Financial Times reported this month that the White House was discussing whether Tencent’s investments in U.S. and Finnish gaming groups posed a national security risk.
British newspapers quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that discussions about its stakes in “Fortnite” developers Epic Games, Riot Games and Supercell revolved around the impact on the data privacy of US users.
“We have been having constructive discussions with relevant U.S. regulatory agencies for some time,” Tencent President Liu said.
He said that “things are moving in a positive direction” and that overall risks are “controllable.”
“While there is due process in the U.S., other regions are actually very keen on us investing in gaming companies.”
- AFP By Jim Pollard Additional editing
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