Alibaba's workplace collaboration app, DingTalk, announced a significant push into artificial intelligence. The company launched a dedicated operating system for AI agents, named Agent OS. This move signals a strategic evolution from a software platform into a full-stack provider of AI agent technologies for enterprise clients.
This shift places DingTalk in direct competition with Chinese tech rivals. Tencent and ByteDance are also heavily investing in AI agent development.
DingTalk also unveiled a corresponding hardware suite, DingTalk Real. This suite serves as a physical terminal for running the new AI agents.
The hardware is designed to ensure agents operate securely and reliably within corporate environments. It features a physical power cut-off mechanism for unpredictable agent behavior. This combined hardware and software initiative underscores Alibaba's ambition to be a key player in the intensifying enterprise AI arms race.