Alibaba cross-border arm plans AI subscriptions and stablecoin-like payments with JPMorgan (www.cnbc.com)

Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce arm announced a paid AI subscription and a suite of payment innovations to speed up B2B trade. The platform launched “AI Mode,” an upgraded search powered by Alibaba’s Qwen models that compares suppliers on pricing, logistics and production capabilities, and plans to monetize it with a proposed $20/month or $99/year tier. In December it will also roll out “agentic pay,” an AI feature that converts messaging between buyers and suppliers into automated contracts to streamline deal flow and reduce manual paperwork. Alibaba.com says active global suppliers grew 50% year-over-year, and the subscription aims to create a new revenue stream for the unit. On payments, Alibaba said it will adopt tokenization—digital representations of fiat balances held on bank ledgers—to enable near-instant, lower-cost cross-border transfers, and will explore stablecoin-like options later. Tokenized deposits differ from non-bank-issued stablecoins because they’re backed by fiat on bank balance sheets; Alibaba is looking at tokenized euros and dollars and plans to partner with banks such as JPMorgan, which has launched its own JPMD token for cross-border B2B payments. The move signals tighter integration of AI-driven commerce, blockchain tokenization, and incumbent banking rails to reduce intermediaries, speed settlement, and reshape cross-border B2B workflows.