Ant Group Centers Growth Strategy on AI Healthcare

Ant Group plans to offer artificial intelligence-powered health services to most of China’s 1.4 billion people within three years, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Feb. 10).

The company, whose operations include digital payments platform Alipay as well as lending, wealth management and insurance technology, sees AI-powered healthcare as the source of its next phase of growth, according to the report.

Zhang Junjie, head of Ant Group’s health unit, said in the report that Ant focused on making payments easier during its first decade and concentrated on inclusive finance in its second decade.

“Now, we hope helping people live healthier lives can be the driver for the next decade,” Zhang said, per the report.

Ant Group’s efforts in the healthcare field include AI Doctor Agents that answer patients’ routine questions, as well as an AQ healthcare app that aggregates health data, answers general questions, and connects users with health services, according to the report.

The AI Doctor Agents answered more than 27 million questions in 2025, while the AQ app handles 10 million questions per day, per the report.

Patient adoption of these tools is supported by the company’s Alipay business, which has been handling hospital payments for more than a decade, the report said.

Ant Group unveiled its AQ healthcare app in June, saying the product was made using AI technology that could be used overseas. Although Ant’s focus is on mainland China, the app or the tech behind it could be licensed to a third party.

In November, the company said in a press release that the AQ healthcare app had served 140 million users and was offering more than 100 AI-powered services, including doctor recommendations, medical report analysis and personalized health guidance.

“We hope AI can empower doctors by extending their reach to more patients, freeing up time for medical research and the fight against complex diseases, while equipping community doctors with powerful AI assistants,” Ant Group CEO Cyril Han said in the release.

Ant Group said in a December press release that AI-powered solutions can help meet the growing demand for health-related services in China, where over 30% of the population will be aged 60 or older by 2035.

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