| Kuake AI's Evolution: Bold Ambitions

By the Eyan Team |

Full text: 1880 words, reading time: approximately 4 minutes |

Alibaba has recently announced its commitment to vying for the "super entry point" of the AI era with a significant product upgrade.

On March 13, Alibaba's intelligent application Kuake unveiled a comprehensive transformation into the "AI Super Box." This seemingly simple alteration to the interaction interface is, in fact, a strategic move by Alibaba within the AI application ecosystem. From intelligent search to a comprehensive assistant, from tool aggregation to proactive service, Kuake's evolution reflects not only Alibaba's strategy for the AI technology roadmap but also heralds the intense competition among tech giants for the next generation of user entry points.

From Search Box to "Doraemon's Pocket": Kuake's Transformation and Alibaba's AI Vision

At the heart of the "AI Super Box" lies the integration of search, dialogue, reasoning, and execution capabilities into a single, minimalist input box. When users input "plan a three-day tour of Hangzhou," Kuake not only generates a travel itinerary but also books hotels and creates presentation slides. Inputting "create a fitness meal plan" will suggest a plan tailored to the user's health data. Even tasks such as academic paper chart analysis and interactive explanations of complex math problems can be accomplished through this entry point.

This "All-in-One" design fundamentally shifts away from the passive response model of traditional search boxes, instead enabling active task decomposition and execution by harnessing the multimodal capabilities of Alibaba's Tongyi Large Model in collaboration with the Agent module.

Kuake's evolution underscores Alibaba's ambitious AI strategy.

Firstly, Alibaba aims to capture the high ground of AI-native applications. In the AI product market dominated by chatbot forms, Alibaba has chosen a distinct path: not creating a "conversational robot" but rather a "task execution hub." This approach not only avoids direct competition with products like DeepSeek but also fortifies its position by integrating e-commerce, payment, health, and other scenario capabilities within the Alibaba ecosystem.

As Kuake CEO Wu Jia stated, humans no longer need to directly utilize tools like search engines; instead, they can give complete task instructions directly to AI. The AI will think, execute, and interactively adjust during the process to ensure the final task delivery.

Secondly, Alibaba seeks to provide a broader application scenario for the Tongyi Large Models. As the pinnacle of Alibaba's AI technology, the Tongyi series of models requires flagship applications to validate its commercial value. Kuake's vast user base of 33.69 million daily active users provides real-world scenario data for model iteration, fostering a virtuous cycle of "technological breakthrough - enhanced user experience - user growth." Alibaba has also announced that the latest advancements in the Tongyi series of models will be integrated into Kuake first.

Another critical aspect is that Alibaba aims to address its shortcomings in C-end traffic through Kuake. Alibaba has long struggled with the absence of super entry points comparable to WeChat and Douyin. With over 50% of its users being young, Kuake is attempting to transform its tool attributes into ecological stickiness through AI capabilities. In the future, if Kuake integrates services such as Taobao and Alipay, it could reconstruct the closed loop of "search - decision - transaction," which is crucial for the e-commerce mainstay facing growth constraints.

A week ago, the AI agent Manus gained overnight popularity with its "visual task execution," sparking heated discussions about general AI Agents. Although Manus has not yet been officially launched, Kuake's demonstrated advantages have piqued significant market curiosity: Could Kuake be a superior "Manus"?

BAT Clash: Can Kuake Prevail?

The competition for AI application entry points has intensified, with BAT entering a fierce battle.

After Tencent announced the full integration of DeepSeek-R1, WeChat, Yuanbao, ima, and other products have gained momentum, with Yuanbao even surpassing DeepSeek to top the free download chart on the Apple Store. ByteDance's Doubao ranks second, leveraging the Douyin traffic pool. Faced with formidable competitors, Kuake's strengths and weaknesses are equally evident.

Starting with the advantages, first, Kuake boasts deep integration in vertical scenarios: In education, Kuake's "AI Problem Solving" function has garnered a positive reputation; in health scenarios, its integration with Alibaba Health is more practical. This three-tiered penetration of "tools - services - ecosystem" is more likely to establish user dependency than general AI assistants.

Secondly, Kuake excels in providing a multi-device collaborative experience. Kuake has achieved seamless synchronization across mobile phones, PCs, and tablets, while Tencent's Yuanbao has not yet fully integrated terminals such as QQ Browser. If capabilities are extended to smart speakers and in-vehicle systems in the future, Kuake could establish an advantage across all scenarios.

Furthermore, the leverage effect of Alibaba's open-source ecosystem is apparent. Alibaba has recently released open-source models such as Qwen2.5. If developers build vertical Agents based on Kuake, it could foster an ecosystem effect akin to Android.

Kuake's disadvantage lies in the fact that, compared to Tencent's reliance on WeChat's social chain and ByteDance's dependence on Douyin's content ecosystem, it is challenging for Kuake to replicate such a substantial and attractive traffic advantage in the short term, thereby escaping the dilemma of "technological leadership, lagging entry point."

Conclusion

The crux of this battle for AI entry points is the reshaping of human-computer interaction paradigms. As Kuake transforms the search box into "Doraemon's Pocket," Manus allows users to witness the AI thinking process, and Yuanbao strives to become the intelligent hub of the WeChat ecosystem, these tech giants are essentially addressing a fundamental question: What kind of AI partner do users truly need?

Alibaba's choice is "ultimate efficiency" - addressing all needs through a single entry point; Tencent bets on "ecological integration" - enabling AI to permeate social and content scenarios; while startups explore "transparent collaboration" - enhancing users' control over AI. Behind these diverse paths lies a differentiated competition for users' minds.

It is foreseeable that 2025 will be a pivotal year for the explosion of AI applications. Kuake's upgrade is not only a significant bet by Alibaba on AI but also marks the commencement of the war for entry points in the AI application era. As Wu Jia noted, "Today is just a small step; the ultimate goal of AI is to simplify life."

And beneath this simplicity lies a comprehensive competition encompassing technology, ecosystems, and user experiences.

END