Some of China's largest technology companies have spent tens of billions of yuan this year to push artificial intelligence initiatives for the upcoming Spring Festival, marking their most significant effort yet to take AI applications out of labs and into the daily lives of a nation of more than 1.4 billion consumers.

The move could potentially give China an early lead in large-scale consumer AI adoption, which may be difficult for its rivals in the United States to replicate, industry experts said.

At the center of this effort is Alibaba's Qwen app, which announced a 3 billion yuan ($420 million) holiday campaign starting on Friday. The campaign offers users free food, retail and services, but only if they make purchases through the app's AI-assisted ordering system.

For example, users could buy a cup of milk tea or coffee for as little as 0.01 yuan, an offer that has sparked a social media frenzy. Many consumers joked online that they were drinking their first "AI milk tea".

Alibaba's wider ecosystem, including Taobao flash sales, travel platform Fliggy, ticketing service Damai, grocery chain Hema and payment service Alipay are also participating in the campaign by linking AI prompts directly to ordering and payment systems.

Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said: "The move is not simply promotional largesse. It is a behavioral experiment aimed at lowering the cost of trials to near zero and habituating users to use AI for decision-making and transactions."

Among the other players, Tencent Holdings' Yuanbao AI assistant distributed 1 billion yuan in digital red envelopes while testing new AI social features. Baidu Inc distributed 500 million yuan in incentives within its core Baidu app, encouraging a user shift from "search" to "ask AI".

According to Wang, the researcher, this Spring Festival may become a turning point where ordinary users, at scale, form the habit of turning to AI when they need something.

While Chinese firms are integrating AI into food delivery, travel booking, entertainment and retail, US companies are focusing more on workplace productivity and software automation.

Wang emphasized that China's digital infrastructure, including its large population of mobile internet users, deeply entrenched mobile payment systems, and mature online-to-offline commerce networks, gives the country a natural advantage.

"These allow AI systems not only to suggest actions but also to execute payments and services within a closed loop — a level of integration that is harder to achieve in more fragmented Western digital markets," he added.

Behavioral change

However, Pan Helin, a member of an expert committee under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, warned that heavy subsidies do not guarantee lasting behavioral change.

"Holiday red envelopes and free offers can drive a temporary surge, but the real test comes after the incentives fade. The key question is whether users will still order drinks or plan trips via AI when there are no discounts.

"Only AI products that solve real problems and integrate into everyday life will endure. For China's tech giants, the real test of turning trial into habit is only beginning," he said.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn