Ant Group has launched a new AI-powered healthcare application, AQ, marking a significant step in its expansion into the healthcare sector.
The app offers more than 100 AI-enabled functions, including medical report interpretation, doctor recommendations, and personalised health advice.
It also provides access to digital services from over 5,000 hospitals and close to one million doctors throughout China.
The move comes amid growing pressure on China’s healthcare system, with the country’s National Health Commission projecting that by 2035, over 400 million people, more than 30% of the population, will be aged 60 or above.
This demographic trend is expected to sharply increase the demand for medical services.
“Ant Group hopes that through AQ, it can provide everyone with a trusted healthcare manager, advancing inclusive healthcare and bringing every Chinese citizen one step closer to a healthier life,”
said Cyril Han, CEO of Ant Group.
The AQ app is powered by Ant Group’s Healthcare Large Model, which builds on more than ten years of experience in the sector.
The company began its involvement in healthcare in 2014 by launching an online hospital appointment service on Alipay, its main digital platform.
Since then, it has supported the digital transformation of China’s healthcare system.
Ant Group’s model is designed with medical reasoning capabilities and supports multimodal interactions. It has ranked first in both the HealthBench and MedBench evaluations.
The company says it has prioritised privacy and security, aiming to ensure a reliable and safe experience for users while supporting hospitals and doctors in delivering more efficient and accessible care.
In March 2025, Ant Group worked with technology partners to integrate its healthcare model into all-in-one AI systems for hospitals.
These systems are designed for on-site deployment, enabling healthcare providers to use AI in a secure and operationally efficient way.
In addition, the company has developed AI tools to assist healthcare providers directly.
In Zhejiang Province, Ant Group collaborated with public medical institutions to create Angel, an AI agent that has supported over 1,000 facilities and processed more than 50 million user interactions.
The company has also supported local health insurance institutions in building Yibaoer, an AI assistant for handling insurance-related queries.
Following its acquisition of online healthcare platform Haodf in January 2025, Ant Group launched the AI Doctor Assistant, a tool intended to support medical professionals in diagnosis, record-keeping, and patient education.
The company is also working with nearly 200 doctors to co-develop AI Doctor Agents, which aim to provide patients with accurate and trustworthy medical advice.
These AI agents are designed to enhance health literacy and expand access to medical guidance, particularly for those in underserved areas.
Through these developments, Ant Group is seeking to ease some of the pressure on healthcare providers by helping to optimise the use of limited resources and improve accessibility to medical services across the country.
Featured image credit: Ant Group