Qwen's AI Shopping Spree Halts Amid Overwhelming Demand

Alibaba's artificial intelligence chatbot Qwen experienced a temporary hiccup in its ambitious campaign to showcase its advanced shopping functions. The chatbot, part of a 3-billion-yuan ($433 million) project, was overwhelmed by a surge in customer interest as it attempted to distribute shopping coupons offering purchases solely via AI prompts.

Launched amid China's annual Spring Festival, the initiative underscores Alibaba's Agentic AI strategy to integrate Qwen as a central hub for users to access other apps and make payments. However, the rollout faced challenges as technical issues emerged immediately from the start of the coupon distribution.

Within the first nine hours, Qwen processed an impressive 10 million orders. However, the massive influx resulted in the chatbot being temporarily unable to handle additional requests. By late Monday, the situation was resolved, and Alibaba confirmed that coupons would remain valid until the end of February, despite refusing further comments on the technical roadblocks.