Tencent WorkBuddy Becomes China's First Office-AI Agent to Surpass 10 Million MAU as Big Tech Reshuffles

Office-AI User Surge and Shakeout

China's office-AI agent market experienced explosive growth in August, with total monthly active users across the category reaching 21.15 million, up roughly 60 percent month-on-month and 242 percent year-on-year, according to market research firm Xsignal. Tencent's WorkBuddy led the pack at 11.37 million MAU, a 72.9 percent monthly increase, making it the first product in the segment to break the 10 million barrier.

Baidu Dazi ranked second at 7.88 million MAU after surging 203.7 percent, while Alibaba's newly consolidated Qwen Office reached 1.22 million MAU with the fastest growth rate at 298.2 percent. In contrast, early movers lost ground: ByteDance's Coze fell 9.0 percent and iFlytek's Tingjian dropped 8.7 percent, widening the stratification within the sector.

Scale Has Not Yet Translated Into Stickiness

Rapid user growth has not equated to deep engagement. Xsignal data shows WorkBuddy users averaged 20.2 minutes and 19.5 sessions per month — well above Baidu Dazi (2.5 minutes, 4.7 sessions) and Qwen Office (9.1 minutes, 5.2 sessions), but still below Coze's 29.1 minutes and 20.1 sessions. Even declining Coze and iFlytek Tingjian (25.9 minutes) retained higher per-user engagement than the newer entrants.

The gap suggests that while Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba successfully drove trial adoption through organizational consolidation and resource reallocation during July and August, converting those users into habitual workflows remains an unresolved challenge.

Four Giants, Four Strategies

Tencent's approach centers on recouping its cloud investment. On July 20, it merged QClaw-related teams into WorkBuddy's division. Senior executive vice president Tang Daosheng has outlined two agent tracks — personal and service — with enterprise monetization flowing through Tencent Cloud. Notably, Tencent has not set direct commercialization KPIs for WorkBuddy, treating it instead as a vehicle for cloud-driven returns.

Alibaba is defending its enterprise base. DingTalk CEO Chen Yusen simultaneously leads Qwen Office, leveraging DingTalk's network of over 26 million enterprise organizations — used by 79 percent of China's A-share listed companies. At the September 22 Apsara Conference, Qwen Office launched an Enterprise Context feature that connects to accumulated corporate documents, meeting data and group chats to execute tasks according to business rules.

ByteDance is seeking a monetization channel for its models. CEO Liang Rubo stated publicly on September 15 that agents, models and collaboration environments must be tightly integrated to deliver value. With consumer subscription revenue for Doubao estimated at under 1 million yuan daily against daily costs in the tens of millions, ByteDance raised Volcano Engine's MaaS revenue target to 15 billion yuan. Coze's MAU decline partly reflects internal restructuring: TRAE and Coze teams were merged into the Doubao system, and a new standalone product, Doubao Work, launched on August 25.

Baidu maintains a dual-track strategy. Kuku AI belongs to the personal super-intelligence group with its head reporting directly to Li Yanhong, focusing on consumer subscriptions. Baidu Dazi sits under the Intelligent Cloud Group led by executive vice president Shen Dou, leveraging enterprise sales channels. As traditional search advertising continues to erode, Baidu faces pressure to establish AI revenue streams before its core search franchise loses relevance.