Alipay Wins 'Best AI Practice' at Global Payments Innovation Awards

On Sept. 15, 2026, The Digital Banker announced the winners of its 2026 Global Cards & Payments Innovation Awards, naming Alipay's AI payment solution the "Best AI Practice" winner.

The publication said Alipay's AI payment capabilities were built for the emerging AI economy, offering consumers a smoother journey from product discovery and decision-making to payment, while helping merchants capture AI-driven business opportunities and providing a scalable foundation for transactions involving consumers, merchants and AI agents.

Alipay has built a full-stack AI payment system covering consumers, AI agents, developers and merchants, enabling agents to complete transactions autonomously. The company said the system has processed 300 million AI agent payments and is the first large-scale commercial AI-native payment infrastructure.

At the 2026 Bund conference, Alipay further outlined its move from "payable" to "trustworthy" AI payment. It plans to launch an AI wallet agent that can interact with other agents on behalf of users, and introduced three "AI collection" capabilities — Vibe Pay, Skill Pay and Machine Pay — along with scenarios such as AI subscription, AI-assisted purchasing and AI booking.

The shift in transaction participants also raises new trust questions. Alipay is building an identity, intent, authorization, execution and traceability framework to support AI agents in commercial transactions. The award highlights growing attention to AI payments as agents move from information processing to autonomous commercial execution.