Khaberni - Chinese-based Ant Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, is heading towards the AI-supported healthcare sector to make it one of its new strategic pillars, a move aimed at exploiting the opportunities provided by the increasing number of elderly in China, according to CEO Han Xin Yi.
This move comes after the company faced difficulties in achieving new growth, following the restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities on its lending activities.
Ant Group has also undergone a restructuring that administratively separated it from Alibaba, after Jack Ma relinquished his role as the actual controller of the company, according to a report published by "scmp"
Han stated in a message to employees: "In the age of artificial intelligence, Ant focuses on practical applications in three main areas: daily consumer services, financial services, and healthcare."
He confirmed that healthcare will become a strategic pillar for the company, as artificial intelligence represents a key to solving major health challenges in society.
A fully integrated healthcare sector supported by artificial intelligence
Ant Group restructured its business to include five main departments: Alipay, digital payments, wealth management and insurance, credit, and healthcare.
It has also established an international arm named Ant International, and other independent entities such as Ant Digital Technologies and OceanBase.
Zhang Gongjie, a veteran in the company, leads the new healthcare sector.
Ant Group has been involved in this field for about a decade, providing services such as medical appointment bookings, bill payments, and managing digital certificates for health insurance.
Smart applications and medical assistants
At the beginning of 2025, the company acquired the "Haodf" platform, which specializes in online medical consultations and connects patients with doctors.
Thanks to this deal, Ant Group launched a smart medical assistant that helps more than 290,000 doctors manage medical records and daily tasks.
In June of last year, the company launched a stand-alone application named AQ, previously a part of the "Alipay" app.
The application offers services including doctor recommendations, medical report analysis, and personalized advice for users, connecting them digitally with thousands of hospitals.
According to company data, the application served more than 140 million users by last September and became the only healthcare application among the top seven AI-based Chinese applications used, according to research firm QuestMobile.
An artificial intelligence model specialized in medicine
The AQ application relies on Ant Group's massive medical model, Healthcare Large Model, built on technologies such as DeepSeek R1 and V3 and Qwen from Alibaba, in addition to the BaiLing model developed by the company itself.
These models have achieved advanced performance in international tests such as HealthBench and MedBench.
Ant Group is also developing digital solutions for hospitals, including the smart assistant Angel, which was developed in collaboration with medical institutions in Zhejiang province, and has served more than 1000 medical facilities, recording more than 50 million user interactions.
This focus on healthcare represents the company's biggest shift since its initial public offering was canceled in 2020, reflecting its efforts to reinvent its business model amidst economic and regulatory changes in China.
