Alibaba just hit a major snag with its AI chatbot, Qwen. The company had to stop giving out discount coupons after millions of people rushed the system at once, causing it to crash. This huge surge in traffic is stalling a massive campaign aimed at showing that the AI can actually do things like shop for you, rather than just answer basic questions.
The trouble started on Friday when Alibaba launched a 3-billion-yuan ($433 million) plan for the Chinese Spring Festival. The idea was simple: users could talk to the Qwen chatbot and buy items from Alibaba’s various stores directly through the chat. Alibaba wants Qwen to become a “one-stop shop” where people can find products and pay for them without ever leaving the conversation. This strategy is very similar to how Google is currently adding its Gemini AI to apps like Google Maps.
However, the plan worked almost too well. Within the first nine hours, shoppers placed a staggering 10 million orders. By Sunday, the system was so bogged down that Qwen’s official social media account on Weibo posted a plea for users to give the bot a break. On Monday, many people trying to use the tool received messages saying the bot was “overloaded” because too many people were trying to participate at the same time.
The chatbot told frustrated users that its team is working “tirelessly” to fix the experience and get things running again. The good news for shoppers is that the coupons remain valid until February 28th. This gives people plenty of time to redeem their discounts once the servers recover from the holiday rush.
This technical meltdown shows the growing pains of the AI industry. Companies are racing to build “AI agents” that can handle real-world tasks, but this incident proves that the infrastructure behind these bots still struggles to handle a massive, mainstream audience all at once.
