Alibaba’s DingTalk launches new service bundled with AI features to boost productivity

DingTalk 365 offers more than 10 features including AI-powered search, virtual assistant and automated reply

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DingTalk’s new paid service reflects how China’s Big Tech firms are stepping up the roll-out of commercial generative artificial intelligence products. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00pm, 24 Sep 2024

DingTalk, the workplace collaboration app developed by Alibaba Group Holding, has introduced a new subscription service that provides members with various artificial intelligence (AI) features, as Chinese Big Tech companies ramp up efforts to monetise the technology.

The service called DingTalk 365 offers more than 10 features including AI-powered search, virtual assistant and automated reply, according to a DingTalk post published on Monday on the platform’s public WeChat account. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

The search feature, for example, uses large language models – the technology underpinning generative AI (GenAI) applications like ChatGPT – to analyse, summarise and generate text from a vast sea of information, such as chats and files, spread across the DingTalk platform to help boost users’ productivity.

The annual subscription fee for DingTalk 365 costs 339 yuan (US$56), but the service is currently being offered at an introductory rate of 169 yuan. Existing DingTalk users are required to update their app to version 7.6.16 or higher to subscribe to the new service.

The headquarters of Alibaba Group Holding’s DingTalk platform in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

DingTalk’s latest programme reflects how domestic Big Tech firms are stepping up the roll-out of commercial GenAI products and services, nearly two years after Microsoft-backed OpenAI released ChatGPT to ignite a global AI arms race.