On Monday, Tencent announced that it is conducting a small-scale test of Xiaowei, an AI assistant integrated into Weixin, the Chinese version of WeChat. Users can interact with Xiaowei through text or voice, allowing them to communicate with friends and access mini-programs, which are applications that operate within WeChat.
With over 1.4 billion monthly active users, WeChat is a critical platform in China, making this integration a strategic move for Tencent to capture a significant portion of its user base for AI services. The company has been exploring AI integration since last year, and investors are keen to see if this can generate new revenue.
The AI assistant is part of Tencent's broader strategy to compete with rivals such as Alibaba, DeepSeek, and Zhipu in a highly competitive AI landscape. Notably, Tencent recently hired an OpenAI researcher as its chief AI scientist and is developing its own AI models under the Hunyuan brand.
However, Tencent has not disclosed specific details about Xiaowei's capabilities or the AI models it utilizes