Tencent's AI Comeback: Work Agent Nearly Doubles Traffic of Closest Rival

Tencent's WorkBuddy, an AI agent designed for workplace tasks, has reportedly established itself as a front-runner in China's emerging market for such tools. The agent, which integrates with work environments like desktops and WeChat without requiring separate installation, recorded 85.34 million monthly visits in September. This figure places it ahead of Alibaba's Qwen Office at 46.55 million and ByteDance's Doubao Work at 30.39 million visits, with analysts attributing the lead partly to an earlier launch and focus on accessibility.

The agent's functionality extends to automating complex tasks by connecting disparate corporate systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). For instance, WorkBuddy can organize multiple receipts into a single expense settlement request. Tencent plans to deepen this integration by building WorkBuddy into WeCom, its corporate messaging platform, allowing the AI to leverage accumulated conversations and documents, within approved limits, to carry out tasks and pass results to colleagues.

This reported success in AI agents marks a strategic shift for Tencent, which had previously faced criticism for its large language model, Hunyuan, trailing competitors. Dowson Tong, senior executive vice president at Tencent, noted that WorkBuddy has been adopted by 50% of China's top 500 companies and across more than 50 industries since its launch in March. Analysts suggest the competitive focus in AI is shifting from improving foundational model performance to developing agents that can generate tangible revenue, where WorkBuddy is positioned as a leader.

Beyond the domestic agent market, Tencent's overseas cloud and AI business is also reportedly expanding. Tong stated that overseas AI demand for Tencent Cloud grew at a triple-digit rate over the past year, with the number of active overseas customers doubling. This growth is linked to cost competitiveness, attracting interest from global firms in China's AI ecosystem.