China’s technology titans from Alibaba Group Holding to Tencent Holdings are locked in a race to decide who will own the digital front door of the future, as they pour billions of dollars into generative artificial intelligence, betting that whoever builds the most seamless AI-powered gateway will influence how the country’s 1.4 billion people shop, work, and communicate.

Over the past decades, the gateway to the internet has shifted form – from the early web portals to the search engine era, and eventually to the “super apps” that currently dominate Chinese online life.

Now, the industry is betting on a new evolution: the AI agent.

The goal is to move away from the manual “click-and-scroll” era towards a more intuitive, conversational experience.

Chinese tech companies are tapping AI’s ability to understand and generate natural language and synthesise information, thereby equipping conventional online services – search engines or shopping platforms – to turn once rigid online roaming for information into a more smooth conversational experience, said Zhang Yi, founder and chief analyst at internet consultancy iiMedia.

“A streamlined process to have AI interpret user intents, synthesising information, recommending products and placing orders is more efficient” than the traditional way of online shopping that requires a user to go through the process manually, Zhang said.