Prime Highlights:

• Ant Group plans to scale its healthcare business to match its payments and lending units within three years, using AI-powered digital health services to reach China’s 1.4 billion people.
• Its AQ health app, with over 30 million monthly users, uses AI doctor avatars to handle millions of routine medical inquiries, improving access to healthcare outside major cities.

Key Facts:

• AQ’s AI doctor avatars, created by over 1,000 trained doctors, handled more than 27 million inquiries in 2025.
• Around 70% of medical payments in China go through Ant’s Alipay, and 60% of AQ users are in smaller cities, giving the company a strong reach beyond metropolitan areas.

Background:

Ant Group is accelerating its push into artificial intelligence-driven healthcare, aiming to capture a larger share of China’s $69 billion health market as it reshapes its business strategy after its failed IPO.

The company plans to expand its health unit to the same level as its payments and lending businesses within three years. It aims to use AI-powered digital health services to reach most of China’s 1.4 billion people.

At the center of this strategy is AQ, a health app launched in June 2025. The app now has over 30 million monthly active users who submit around 10 million questions daily. Ant has trained more than 1,000 doctors to create AI doctor agents, digital avatars designed to answer routine medical queries. These avatars handled more than 27 million inquiries last year.

The healthcare sector in China was valued at 480 billion yuan ($69 billion) in 2025, according to AskCI. Ant has not disclosed revenue from its health business.

Around 70% of medical payments in China already run through Ant’s Alipay platform, giving the company a strong base. About 60% of AQ’s 140 million users live in smaller cities, which helps Ant offer services outside the big cities.

In China, Ant A-Fu offers more than 100 AI tools, including medical report analysis and wearable device integration.

However, AI cannot give prescriptions or replace doctors in diagnosing or treating patients because of regulations. As a result, AQ focuses on health management and routine guidance. Ant’s technology chief said the company also plans to launch an English version for global markets.