China's Alipay has launched an AI Pay service allowing autonomous AI agents to make purchases and complete payments on a user's behalf, Emerging Travel reported on April 21.

The service enables so-called OpenClaw-type AI agents to handle transactions after a user authorises the function through voice command and identity verification. The process runs in three steps: a user states a need, confirms the order and authorises payment. Orders can be modified or cancelled at any point with a single command.

The launch builds on Alipay AI Pay, an AI-native payment product introduced in 2025 that passed 100mn users in February 2026. During the week of February 5-11, the system processed more than 120mn transactions.

For travel, the implication is that a user could ask an AI agent to book a hotel and have the agent search, select, book and pay without opening an app. Alipay already operates across Chinese travel use cases through airline and hotel mini-programmes.

The new service is pre-installed on Alibaba Cloud's JVS Claw and has been rolled out on DTClaw, Ant Group Digital Technologies' agent platform. It is also available to other OpenClaw-type agents, including Claude Code and Hermes Agent.

Security measures include mandatory user-initiated activation and identity verification, per-transaction authorisation, and a round-the-clock risk-control system. Alipay has extended its full compensation account protection programme to the new service.

The company has released a set of developer-facing tools to support AI-driven commerce, including a Payment MCP Server, a Payment Integration Skill for vibe coding developers, an AI tipping function and an AI subscription payment service based on usage time or duration. Alipay said each is the first of its kind in China.

Alipay AI Pay is already live across use cases, from traditional retailers such as Luckin Coffee to AI smart glasses from Rokid and Alibaba's Qwen consumer AI application.

Alipay connects more than 1bn consumers to over 80mn merchants across China.