Ahead of the "longest Spring Festival holiday in history," Alibaba's Qianwen has powerfully ushered in the era of AI shopping. On February 6, the "Spring Festival 3 Billion Free Orders" campaign launched火爆 on the Qianwen APP, with orders surpassing 10 million within just 9 hours. The Qianwen APP has also consistently outperformed competitors like Doubao and Yuanbao, maintaining its top position on the Apple App Store free chart.
On February 11, Alibaba Qianwen and Fliggy announced AI collaborations with over 40 global travel brands to provide exclusive subsidies and value-added benefits for AI users of the Qianwen APP and Fliggy. According to a "Fliggy Spokesperson," the brands pioneering this AI cooperation include leading airlines such as China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, China United Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Beibu Gulf Airlines, Suparna Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines, Emirates, United Airlines, Gulf Air, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand, and Scoot; major hotel and resort chains like Wanda Hotels & Resorts, New Century Hotels, Jinjiang, Huazhu, BTG Homeinns, Doland, and The Lost Valley; as well as super theme parks including Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, Fantawild, Haichang Ocean Park, and Snow Miracle. These brands have become the first movers in the travel industry to genuinely deploy consumer-grade AI.
The form of information flow and product flow has undergone a qualitative transformation in the AI era, especially for the travel industry, which involves numerous decision-making factors and lengthy purchase chains. AI can accurately identify user intent through natural language conversations and match travel services from vast and dynamic product information.
It is understood that these brands will leverage Fliggy's AI Agent capabilities to provide simpler, more intelligent travel services, enabling a complete AI shopping experience from inquiry and planning to one-click ordering without leaving the platform. Simultaneously, they will customize benefits for Qianwen APP users, including discounted prices, substantial coupons, complimentary hotel breakfasts, and late check-out options, demonstrating considerable sincerity with savings of up to 300 RMB per order.
For example, if a user tells the Qianwen APP, "Help me book a flight from Shanghai to Dubai on the 25th," the app immediately recommends three flights: MU245, EK305, and EK303. Clicking on the corresponding product card shows that all three tickets display "Qianwen Exclusive" offers, with instant discounts ranging from 100 RMB to 300 RMB. Users can proceed directly to confirmation and payment by clicking the card.
As model capabilities and products iterate, more new offerings and experiences tailored to the needs of users in the AI era will accelerate their emergence.
"2026 can be considered the first year of the AI consumption era. The consumption upgrade and shift in traffic portals driven by AI super-apps like Alibaba's Qianwen are unstoppable. For airlines, supply-side optimization must keep pace with changes in demand to avoid missing the low-cost customer acquisition opportunities of being an early adopter," said Qi Qi, Associate Professor at Guangzhou Civil Aviation College. "Airlines can rely on platforms with strong AI capabilities, like Qianwen and Fliggy, to deploy more favorable policies and seize the AI traffic advantage. They can also use the AI ecosystem to accelerate product development and service delivery, meeting diverse consumer needs with more personalized experiences."
In Qi Qi's view, every new technology starts with improving production efficiency and culminates in consumption upgrades. Over the past 60-plus years, global airline ticket sales have evolved from CRS to GDS to NDC. Now, the emergence and large-scale application of AI technology are expected to propel the civil aviation industry into a new era of "AI+" digital intelligent marketing.
Professor Li Bin from the School of Tourism Sciences at Beijing International Studies University believes that generative AI will reshape tourists' behavioral patterns when selecting travel products, and these AI-side products will become new entry points for travel consumption. From a supply chain perspective, the significant changes brought by AI may reconfigure the landscape of existing product channels, thereby providing hotels and travel companies with more channel choices and operational opportunities. The travel industry should seize this opportunity to enhance its digital intelligent channel operation capabilities, helping to improve current operational efficiency. It is foreseeable that the rapid development of AI will inevitably have a substantial impact on the entire cultural and tourism industry ecosystem and may become a significant watershed moment for the supply side of the travel industry.