On November 2, at the 2026 World Internet Conference, Ant Afu, a health AI under Ant Group, received the "Leading Tech Award," becoming the first health-vertical AI application to win the award. To date, Ant Afu has served 150 million users and answered nearly 20 million health consultations in a single day, making it the world's largest health management AI App.
Zhang Ling, a professor at the School of Public Health at Capital Medical University, believes that the rapid development of health AI, represented by Ant Afu, meets the public's growing health needs and is the best practice for implementing the "Healthy China" and "AI Plus" initiatives, playing a positive role in improving people's convenience in seeking medical care and consolidating the foundation of national health. The rapid development of professional health AI plays a positive role in building a Healthy China that is balanced, inclusive, high-quality, and efficient.
Serving 150 Million Users，Afu Becomes the First Health AI to Win the Leading Tech Award
As an international technology award, the World Internet Conference Leading Tech Award aims to honor the world's most leading internet technology achievements of the year. Since the award's judging began, Ant Afu is the only health-vertical AI application to have won it.
Data shows that among the users Afu serves, 55% come from third-tier and smaller cities, a quarter are elderly people, and consultations between 0 o'clock and 6 o'clock late at night account for 16%.
"Ant Afu's mission is to make seeing a doctor simpler and life healthier," said Zhang Junjie, Vice President of Ant Group and President of Ant's Health Business Group. To make seeing a doctor simpler, Afu has partnered with the National Healthcare Security Administration and 24 provincial and municipal healthcare security bureaus, as well as 45 provincial and municipal health commissions, linking more than 5,000 hospitals and 300,000 real doctors to provide full-process smart medical services including online consultations, AI appointment booking, cloud accompaniment, report interpretation, and medical insurance payment. Afu's user side and doctor side are interconnected, helping users handle minor ailments at home, get AI accompaniment throughout offline medical visits, and receive intelligent follow-ups from doctors after consultations.
Prevention is the most economical and effective health strategy. To make life healthier, Afu has partnered with 18 major health hardware brands, pioneering a "AI + hardware + services" health management model that makes health status understandable, attended to, and well managed. In June this year, Afu launched the "Scientific Weight Loss of 100 Million Jin" campaign, connecting smart hardware such as body fat scales and smart bands and providing health services like AI personal trainers and AI nutritionists, already helping 3.7 million users lose more than 7 million jin. Zhang Junjie said that in the future, Afu will focus on five major scenarios—weight, diet, exercise, sleep, and mental health—to help more people shift from "passively treating illness" to "actively pursuing health."
Afu Frequently Wins Major Awards at Home and Abroad, Practicing Healthy China and AI Plus
Currently, China is at the intersection of the implementation of the "Healthy China" strategy and the "AI Plus" initiative. The rapid development of AI in healthcare is the result of national policies focusing on people's well-being and enterprise innovation anchoring user needs.
As a health-vertical AI, the professionalism, safety, and trustworthiness of its large model are the foundation of Ant Afu. According to public information, Afu is built on Ant Group's self-developed Bailian large model, created as a health AI application to medical standards, and has deeply participated in building the national AI application pilot base in the medical field, establishing safety guardrails for Afu and the industry.
In May this year, a spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission specifically mentioned Afu at a press conference: the national AI application pilot base has incubated health AI applications like "Ant Afu," which have been deployed in medical institutions across multiple provinces and cities, allowing residents to enjoy intelligent services.
As a representative of China's health AI, Ant Afu has frequently won major international awards. Not long ago, Afu was named one of Time magazine's "Best Inventions" of 2026, and is the only Chinese AI application on the list. Previously, Afu was also selected as an outstanding case at the UN AI for Good summit.