Ant International Launches ‘AI Travel Companion’ Integrated Into Digital Wallets

Ant International has launched an “AI travel companion” called Alipay+ Voyager that is integrated into digital wallets and designed to enhance consumers’ travel experiences.

Alipay+ Voyager was introduced on three mobile wallets in Asia — Alipay, AlipayHK and GCash — and will roll out to more Alipay+ payment partners throughout the year, the company said in a Wednesday (July 2) press release.

This tool provides an AI interface embedded in eWallets and super apps that helps travelers complete their itinerary planning, booking and purchases of in-destination merchant offerings, according to the release.

It provides travelers help with research and actions before during and after their trip; connects to local services like ride-hailing, public transport, shopping, dining and sightseeing; and surfaces relevant options when the travel encounters issues like flight delays or bad weather, the release said.

Alipay+ Voyager is powered by a combination of Ant International’s agentic AI capabilities and the cross-border travel services offered by online travel agency (OTA) partners and global merchants in the Alipay+ partner ecosystem, per the release. It operates via text or voice in the user’s local language.

Ant International President Douglas Feagin said in the release that Alipay+ Voyager helps the travel industry meet consumers’ expectations that technology can enhance their trips.

“By integrating a proactive, always-on AI travel companion within digital wallets that consumers already use frequently, we’re empowering travel and wallet partners with new opportunities to engage travelers in a more relevant, personalized way, through every step of their journey.”

It was reported in May 2024 that Alipay+ was looking to expand as eWallet use grows.

“What we found is that people want to use their home eWallets when they travel abroad,” Feagin told CNBC at the time. “So they don’t want to have to load their card into another app that they don’t know as well.”

Alipay+ was launched in 2020 to allow visitors to China to use apps from their home countries to make payments, and Feagin sees a “huge opportunity” to replicate this offering in other regions, according to the CNBC report.

The PYMNTS Intelligence and TerraPay collaboration “Global Money Movement: U.S. Edition” found that 63% of U.S. consumer cross-border payers use digital wallets for these transactions.