Tencent is making sure WeChat stays ahead in the AI race by embedding its chatbot, Yuanbao, directly into the app. This means users can now add Yuanbao as a “friend” and chat with the AI without needing a separate app. An obvious move to keep WeChat’s billion-plus users locked into the app.
WeChat, or Weixin as it’s known in China, is already a digital Swiss army knife, covering everything from social media and payments to e-commerce and ride-hailing. Now, with AI-powered Yuanbao woven into the platform, Tencent is doubling down on making WeChat even more indispensable. Previously, users had to access Yuanbao through a mini-app, but now, it’s as simple as adding a new friend.
Tencent’s AI Ambitions Go Head-to-Head With Rivals
The AI race in China is heating up, and Tencent is not about to be left behind. Alongside Alibaba and ByteDance, the company has been pouring resources into AI, building its own models under the Yuanbao brand while also integrating open-source AI from DeepSeek.
This week, Tencent stepped up its AI push by incorporating DeepSeek’s latest V3 language model into Yuanbao, significantly improving its ability to handle coding and mathematical problems. At the same time, it added support for its in-house Hunyuan T1 reasoning model, which Tencent has positioned as a direct rival to DeepSeek’s offerings.
What Can Yuanbao Actually Do?
Beyond answering questions, Yuanbao can now analyse social media posts, documents, and images. A test run by the South China Morning Post proved that the AI correctly identified key names in a post about US sanctions on Chinese institutions, recognised flowers in a picture, and even translated an update about DeepSeek’s latest AI model. However, it failed to generate text-based responses, instead redirecting users to the Yuanbao website.
Yuanbao’s rapid rise in popularity isn’t purely organic. Tencent has been aggressively marketing the chatbot, briefly pushing it to the top of China’s free iOS app rankings earlier this month. But the hype has already cooled, with Yuanbao slipping from first to sixth place within days, according to Data.ai.
Tencent’s president, Martin Lau Chi-ping, admitted that keeping users engaged will take more than just marketing. While the chatbot has drawn curiosity, its long-term success depends on whether Tencent can continuously improve its AI’s functionality.
Tencent’s move to integrate Yuanbao directly into WeChat is a strategic play to maintain its dominance as China’s go-to super app. By making AI an everyday feature rather than a separate service, Tencent ensures users have fewer reasons to leave the platform.
