Alipay launches 'Xiaoyu' Agent: 'Tap here' connects brick-and-mortar businesses with one-stop AI operation solutions
2026-06-01 17:16 A5 Entrepreneurship Network
AI agents are moving from online to the streets. To help offline merchants also enjoy the efficiency and revenue boost brought by AI, Alipay recently officially released the merchant operation management agent 'Xiaoyu', and announced that its nationwide 'Tap here' smart terminals are upgraded to 'AI Partner' as in-store touchpoints, linking merchants and service providers to jointly build an AI operation 'new infrastructure' for the real economy.
Figure: Alipay releases merchant operation management agent 'Xiaoyu'
AI-driven, autonomous operation: Alipay releases the first merchant operation agent 'Xiaoyu'
For a long time, offline stores have faced common digitalization difficulties such as lack of unified digital marketing touchpoints, insufficient data mining leading to experience-dependent business decisions, and lack of integration between in-store and online business. Now, relying on the huge offline network of 'Tap here', combined with the agent matrix represented by 'Xiaoyu', Alipay provides a 'one-stop AI operation solution'.
Alipay's 'Tap here' serves millions of stores nationwide and has become a high-frequency touchpoint for consumers to make payments, join membership, and redeem coupons offline. 'Xiaoyu' is like an 'AI employee' that can diagnose, handle tasks, and enable autonomous intelligent operation. On one hand, it analyzes data such as payments, memberships, and group purchase coupons aggregated by 'Tap here'; on the other hand, it accurately dispatches other vertical agents with corresponding functions to collaborate according to the actual operation needs of the store, deducing optimal operation strategies from information such as customer flow, weather, and region.
Merchants do not need backend operations; simple conversations with 'Xiaoyu' can complete the entire process from data analysis to deployment of upgraded operation strategies, making store operation autonomous with light human confirmation, without relying on experience.
Figure: 'Xiaoyu' can provide 'one-stop AI operation solutions' for offline brick-and-mortar merchants
'Xiaoyu' becomes the 'commander' of merchant agents, helping improve operational efficiency and revenue
To address the pain point of 'one-size-fits-all' marketing for chain stores, 'Xiaoyu' activates the 'thousand-store, thousand-strategy agent', analyzing customer flow, product mix, and membership data of each store in real time, combining regional consumption characteristics to generate differentiated marketing plans, adapting to the operational needs of different locations, customer groups, and stores, ensuring every marketing budget is well spent.
When a hot product needs to be created, 'Xiaoyu' coordinates the 'hot product marketing agent', integrating multi-dimensional data such as weather, holidays, and customer profiles to analyze strategies, completing the entire process of product selection, pricing, and promotion. At Henan Xiyuanmen Supermarket, under the dispatch of 'Xiaoyu', 1 million bottles of self-branded beer were sold in 4 weeks, with daily store customer flow surging by 10,000.
At the same time, 'Xiaoyu' can also link the 'Taobao Flash Purchase Agent' to break the barriers between online and offline operations, guiding customers to use the 'Tap here' payment in store and then pushing takeout coupons, helping merchants convert offline customer flow to online at low cost. Beijing 'Little Fat Bun King' achieved a 15% increase in takeout orders within 7 days through this.
It is reported that Alipay's 'Xiaoyu' has already been adopted by multiple chain brands. Alipay stated that this 'one-stop AI operation solution' will continue to open capabilities to SaaS vendors, model vendors, etc., making AI operation accessible to all brick-and-mortar stores.
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