Following Ant Group’s acquisition of Haodf, a healthcare platform specializing in online doctor consultations, Ant Group President Cyril Han and Haodf.com Founder Hang Wang have jointly announced their plans to drive AI-powered healthcare innovations.

Ant Group said in a statement on last Saturday that these efforts aim to help 280,000 doctors on the Haodf platform work more efficiently and better serve 800 million healthcare users on the Alipay super app.

At Haodf.com’s annual conference in Shanghai, the two sides also introduced the AI Doctor Assistant to support doctors in patient education and medical record management.

“Making it easier for people to access healthcare services has been a key focus area of Ant Group. Alipay has been leveraging its technology and platform to support the
healthcare sector for over a decade,

“With a long-term approach, this partnership will better serve the 280,000 doctors on Haodf.com and Alipay’s 800 million healthcare service users,” said Cyril Han, President of Ant Group.

Meanwhile, Hang Wang, Founder of Haodf.com, said that with a shared mission and vision, Haodf.com will join hands with Ant Group to drive innovation in AI-powered healthcare services.

Haodf.com was founded in 2006 to provide online medical consultation.

As of January 2025, the platform hosts a network of 280,000 verified doctors who have collectively served over 100 million patients.

Alipay, which has evolved from a e-wallet into a all-in-one digital platform for daily services, has been supporting the digital transformation of the healthcare industry in China for over a decade.

Starting with the very first online hospital appointment-making service in 2014, Alipay has been assisting hospitals in developing digital services and connecting over 800 million healthcare users to services from more than 3,600 hospitals as of January 2025.

In September 2024, Ant Group launched the AI Healthcare Manager within the Alipay app.

Available through voice and text conversations, this healthcare manager connects users to over 30 services, including doctor mapping, medical report interpretation, in-hospital navigation, and personalized medical advice.

This acquisition brings together complementary strengths for both sides.

Haodf.com can leverage Alipay’s user base, platform, and AI capabilities to lower customer acquisition and operational costs while improving service quality.

At the same time, Haodf.com’s network of doctors enhances the Alipay platform’s healthcare ecosystem, providing users with smarter and more comprehensive medical services.

At the conference, the two sides introduced the AI Doctor Assistant, designed to help doctors with patient education and medical record management.

Acting as a digital twin of doctors, it provides 24/7 support for patient consultations and answers common healthcare questions with professional accuracy.

A similar service is already available on Alipay’s AI Healthcare Manager, where AI agents assist doctors in delivering online consultations that are ten times more efficient than traditional in-person visits.

The assistant has also been introduced on Haodf.com, creating personalized digital twins for nearly 1,000 doctors.

The AI Doctor Assistant’s medical record management features, powered by Ant Group’s BaiLing Foundation Model, allow doctors to store medical records with a simple photo, retrieve them using voice commands, and organize them automatically.

These tools are already being used by an initial group of 500 doctors on the Haodf.com platform.

“Alipay and Haodf.com will continue to support doctors with a long-term approach,

“Together, we aim to collaborate with doctors to deliver better healthcare services for patients,” said Junjie Zhang, Vice President of Alipay and General Manager of Alipay’s Digital Healthcare Business Unit.

At the event, Hang Wang also revealed that both sides will collaborate on continuously upgrading the AI Doctor Assistant, making it an increasingly useful tool for doctors.

In recent years, Ant Group has been consistently increasing its investment in technology, particularly in AI.

According to its latest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) report, the company invested RMB 21.19 billion ($2.9 billion) in technology research and development (R&D) in 2023.

By November 2024, Ant Group had filed a total of 34,576 patents worldwide, with invention patents making up 97 percent of the total.

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