Alipay and StepFun Partnership: System-Level Reconstruction of AI Deployment—Tool or Gateway?

The most valuable insight from this article is that the partnership between Alipay and StepFun is no longer just about "adding a chatbot to the app," but rather embedding AI capabilities directly into core transaction flows like food delivery, travel, and local lifestyle services. This means AI has shifted from "giving directions" to "building roads"—it's starting to take over the interaction interface between users and services, rather than just answering "how to use it."