For years, online shopping in China has followed a rigid, tedious ritual: typing precise keywords, squinting at endless rows of listings, and falling into a rabbit hole of product comparisons.

But for a man surnamed Liu, a 30-something finance professional based in Hong Kong, that experience has recently evolved into something more akin to a casual conversation. Chatting with Alibaba Group Holding’s Qwen artificial intelligence assistant, Liu found that he was being offered a few curated choices rather than just a wall of products.

“It lowers the decision-making burden,” he said, highlighting the AI assistant’s ability to “refine recommendations through flowing conversation”.

Liu is one of China’s over 900 million e-commerce users taking part in what has become a massive nationwide retail experiment. Tech companies are racing to replace the rigid, traditional search bar with agentic AI, a move aimed at transforming online shopping from the previous routine of manual clicks into a more streamlined, natural dialogue.

On Monday, Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, integrated Qwen AI with its Taobao marketplace. By scanning an inventory of 4 billion products, the chatbot acts as a personal shopper – taking a broad request like “birthday gift” and then narrowing it down by user preference categories, such as budget and brand. Purchases can be made directly through the chatbot.

In January, Meituan, the country’s largest on-demand delivery service operator, placed a virtual AI companion at the centre of its app’s navigation bar to help users find local dining and entertainment options.

The move echoes e-commerce giant JD.com’s 2023 launch of Jingyan, an AI tool built to deliver instant product recommendations and comparisons.