Alibaba’s DingTalk rolls out Agent OS as it bets bigger on AI agents

DingTalk, the workplace collaboration app developed by Alibaba Group Holding, has unveiled a dedicated operating system and new enterprise hardware as it steps up its push into AI agents amid an intensifying arms race among China’s tech giants.

At an event in Hangzhou on Tuesday, the Alibaba unit launched Agent OS, an operating system designed specifically for AI agents, alongside DingTalk Real, a hardware suite that serves as a physical terminal for running those agents. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

“Moving forward, all AI agents on DingTalk will be built and run on Agent OS, allowing AI to connect directly with the physical world,” Chen Hang, founder and chief executive of DingTalk, said at the event.

AI agents – such as those developed by Chinese start-up Butterfly Effect’s Manus AI – are software programmes capable of autonomously planning and executing tasks on behalf of users or systems, breaking down complex goals into specific actions using available resources.

The move underscores DingTalk’s ambition to evolve from a pure software platform into a full-stack provider of AI agent technologies, combining both hardware and software for enterprise customers.

The push comes as Alibaba competes more aggressively with domestic rivals including Tencent Holdings and ByteDance, which are also accelerating their investments in AI agents.

DingTalk’s aim is to evolve from a pure software platform into a full-stack provider of AI agent technologies. Photo: Shutterstock

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