Alibaba's ambitious experiment to integrate its Qwen AI chatbot into full e-commerce transactions during China's Spring Festival holiday season encountered significant technical hurdles due to overwhelming user demand. The "Agentic AI" strategy, designed to allow customers to shop entirely through conversational prompts using digital coupons, was put to the test as part of a 3 billion yuan ($433 million) investment aimed at boosting Qwen's adoption.
The campaign quickly reached its limits after launching, with Qwen's servers receiving over 10 million purchase requests through the chatbot in less than nine hours. This surge completely overwhelmed the systems, forcing Alibaba to halt order fulfillment by Saturday. The chatbot began issuing automated replies to customers stating, "due too many people signing up for the campaign, no further credits could be given."
On Qwen's official Weibo account, the company acknowledged the system strain, stating: "The enthusiasm from people wanting to try out AI shopping is above our expectations!" and "There are too many participants for 'Qwen free order' at this time." Alibaba sought to reassure users that the campaign was not terminated and that staff were working to stabilize operations. The coupon redemption period has been extended through February 28, 2024, to allow customers additional time after service restoration.
This public test followed the recent January 2026 release of an updated Qwen mobile app, which links to Alibaba's ecosystem apps like Taobao and Alipay. The app allows users to perform tasks such as ordering products or paying bills via voice commands instead of manual screen navigation. At the launch event, company vice-president for consumer AI Wu Jia demonstrated the capability by ordering 40 cups of milk tea through Qwen.
The "Agentic AI" strategy mirrors global competitors like Google, which is integrating its Gemini AI into services like Google Maps and Search. Alibaba aims to position Qwen as the primary access point for all its apps and products, believing conversational commerce will reduce friction and maintain user engagement across its platform. While the company has not commented on the technical specifics of the overload, the incident highlights both the changing consumer behavior toward AI-powered shopping and the scaling challenges companies face when rapidly deploying such technologies.
