Ant Group accelerates its entry into "AI + healthcare"

Author | Zheng Qiao

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

Internet healthcare has officially entered the AI era.

On January 11th, at the 2025 Good Doctor Summit, ANT GROUP and Good Doctor Online jointly announced that they will increase investment in technology research and development and product innovation in the future, leveraging the platform's connectivity to jointly promote the AI transformation of medical services, enhance doctors' work efficiency with AI, and provide patients with more convenient and efficient medical services.

This is the first public appearance of both parties together since ANT GROUP completed its full acquisition of Good Doctor Online.

In August last year, news of ANT GROUP's acquisition of Good Doctor Online sparked widespread attention in the industry. Previously, leading internet healthcare companies such as Baidu, JD Health, and Alibaba Health had been rumored to have intentions to acquire Good Doctor Online.

With Good Doctor Online's consultation services integrated into the Alipay medical health channel, the company's operating entity has also completed business registration changes. On September 11, 2024, equity change information showed that Good Doctor Online has been fully acquired by ANT GROUP.

As one of the pioneers of internet healthcare services, Good Doctor Online currently includes information on nearly 940,000 doctors from over 10,000 legitimate hospitals in China. Among them, 280,000 doctors are registered on the platform under their real names, directly providing online medical services to patients, with a cumulative service to over 100 million patients.

Since launching China's first online appointment and payment service in 2014, Alipay, under ANT GROUP, has continuously expanded its business in the healthcare sector, currently integrating resources from over 3,600 hospitals to provide digital services such as medical insurance, medication purchases, and appointment scheduling to over 800 million users.

Regarding the "marriage" between the two parties, Good Doctor Online founder Wang Hang stated that a shared mission and vision brought them together, and they will work with ANT GROUP to promote "AI + healthcare" innovation.

ANT GROUP President Han Xinyi also pointed out that making it easier for the public to seek medical treatment is an important part of ANT's vision. ANT will leverage its technological advantages to jointly serve patients, doctors, and hospitals with Good Doctor Online.

He also mentioned that Alipay has been laying out its healthcare strategy for 10 years, and this cooperation will enable the 280,000 Good Doctor doctors to better serve Alipay's 800 million users.

At the summit, an "AI Assistant" to support doctors in popular science and medical record management was also launched. This tool aims to assist doctors in popular science and medical record management. It is similar to the doctor AI agent in Alipay's AI Health Manager, capable of providing daily consultations and popular science Q&A services for patients around the clock, acting as a "digital twin" of the doctor.

It is understood that the "AI Assistant" has also upgraded the medical record management tool, utilizing large models and multimodal technology to enable functions such as photographing and storing medical records, voice searching for medical records, and categorizing and managing medical records. The first batch has already served nearly 500 doctors on the platform.

Wang Hang revealed that in the future, both parties will jointly create an "AI Super Doctor Assistant" to assist the clinical work of 280,000 doctors.

Industry insiders speculate that in order to build its own ecosystem and increase user stickiness, Alipay may seek opportunities to integrate with ANT Insurance and other insurance businesses in the healthcare sector. This acquisition allows both parties to achieve resource complementarity. ANT GROUP's platform user scale and AI capabilities will help Good Doctor Online reduce customer acquisition and operational costs while improving service quality; meanwhile, Good Doctor Online's doctor resources can enhance Alipay's healthcare service network, allowing users to enjoy higher-quality intelligent medical services Since 2023, Alipay has been actively involved in the medical AI field, successively launching large models for the medical industry, AI health managers, and fully opening its professional intelligent ecosystem to medical institutions and the broader health industry.

Previously, Alipay collaborated with the Zhejiang Health Commission to create the digital health persona "An Zhen Er," leveraging large model and digital human technology to provide cloud-based medical accompaniment and health consultation services for residents in Zhejiang, serving over 1,000 medical institutions since its launch.

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference last July, Alipay showcased its multimodal medical large model and introduced several digital intelligence solutions, including the Trusted Medical Integrated Machine and Trusted Cloud.

Zhang Junjie, Vice President of Ant Group and General Manager of the Digital Medical Health Division, stated that Alipay and Good Doctor will adhere to long-termism and steadfastly act as a bridge and booster for doctors, working together with the medical community to better serve patients in the AI era.

As medical services move towards the AI era, the internet medical industry may usher in a new transformation