Author: Alan｜Biteye Content Team

On June 17, WeChat's official "WeChat Dispatch" announced that WeChat Pay has officially released the AI Exclusive Card. According to the official description, users can present spending needs in conversations with Workbuddy and complete relevant payments through the AI Exclusive Card.

This sounds quite interesting: in the future, let AI order a cup of milk tea, buy a service, or subscribe to a tool, and AI will be able to run through the entire process independently.

However, upon actual experience, we found that the WeChat AI Exclusive Card currently does not support "fully automated consumption" by AI. A more accurate understanding is that it is a layer of payment capability opened to AI Agents by WeChat Pay, but each transaction still requires user confirmation, and whether the purchase can actually be completed depends on the Agent, Skill, third-party platform authorization, and product fulfillment process.

This article will start from two questions and an actual operation:

1. What exactly is the WeChat AI Exclusive Card?

2. What can it do now, and what can it not do?

3. Testing it to order a cup of milk tea, let's see how many pitfalls there are.

1. To start with the conclusion: the WeChat AI Exclusive Card is not a card that "AI can swipe freely"

From the product mechanism perspective, the WeChat AI Exclusive Card is more like a "small wallet" isolated from the main WeChat wallet.

Users need to first bind the AI Exclusive Card and then recharge this card from the WeChat wallet. After that, relevant spending by the AI Agent will be deducted from this independent balance first, rather than directly using the user’s daily WeChat wallet funds.

In simple terms, it primarily addresses three questions:

First, where does the money for AI consumption come from?

The AI Exclusive Card has an independent balance, making the financial boundary clearer.

Second, can AI spending be controlled?

Each payment still requires user scanning to confirm on the mobile end, not automatic deductions by AI.

Third, how to manage AI spending records?

AI-related expenses are separated from regular WeChat payments, making them easier to view and manage.

2. How to activate: entry is in the Workbuddy conversation

WorkBuddy is a desktop office efficiency intelligent agent launched by Tencent, more akin to an Agent workstation, with an interface similar to CodeX. It can understand user goals in the conversation and invoke external capabilities to complete tasks through different "expert" Agents or Skills, such as office processing, information query, local life services, etc.

This time, the WeChat Pay AI Exclusive Card is first integrated into WorkBuddy, which also means that WeChat Pay is not directly open to all AI applications but is instead testing the complete link of "AI-initiated payment, user confirmation deduction" in a relatively controllable Agent scenario.

The actual activation process is not complex:

Step 1, ask in the Workbuddy dialog box:

“How do I use the WeChat AI Exclusive Payment Card?”

The Agent will return a redirect link⬇️

Step 2, after clicking the link, you need to use WeChat to scan and bind.

There is a small detail here: the binding link is only valid for 5 minutes and needs to be scanned quickly once generated.

Step 3, read and agree to the relevant agreements, enter the payment password, and the binding will be completed.

Step 4, after binding, users can recharge the AI Exclusive Card using the original WeChat wallet.

The experience of activation and recharging is quite smooth. However, the real issue with AI payments is not "how to open a card," but rather whether AI can help users make successful purchases after the card is opened.

3. What scenarios is it currently suitable for?

According to the explanations provided by Workbuddy, the AI Exclusive Card mainly targets several types of AI consumption scenarios:

1️⃣ Purchase of paid content

Such as reports, data, professional analysis services, etc.

2️⃣ Calling paid APIs or tools

Such as certain online plugins, professional database queries, and per-use charging tool capabilities.

3️⃣ Subscription or renewal of services

Such as value-added features within platforms, membership services, etc.

These scenarios share a common feature: payment objects are relatively standardized, the consumption chain is short, and the fulfillment methods are quite clear.

However, unfortunately, as of now, I have not experimented with Workbuddy's ability to directly call AI Exclusive Card payments for these three types of applications. According to Workbuddy, it requires triggering certain specific built-in charging functions⬇️

4. Actual test: let Workbuddy help me order a cup of Heytea, failed

🥤 We tried a very intuitive life scenario: let Workbuddy help me order a cup of Heytea.

However, right from the first step, we encountered a limitation. Workbuddy itself cannot directly fulfill such ordering needs for takeout or beverages and needs to call the corresponding life service Skill.

So, we referred to the official WeChat demonstration and chose the "Meituan Life Assistant" Skill.

At this step, a new cost issue arose: merely generating a QR code to log in to the Meituan account consumed 185.37 points. In comparison, the points given daily by Workbuddy for login are only 150.

This means that even before starting to place an order, just the login authorization step has already exceeded a day’s free points limit.

After completing the account login authorization, we continued to let it order milk tea. When seeing the AI Exclusive Card payment link pop up, the experience indeed felt very close to "AI helping me buy something."

However, after making the payment, it was found that what Workbuddy actually purchased was not the cup of milk tea we wanted, but a Meituan group purchase coupon that did not meet our needs.

The payment action was completed, but the purchase result did not align with user needs.

5. Reasons for failure: the problem is not with payment, but with the Agent's execution link

In fact, this failure cannot simply be attributed to the AI Exclusive Card being "difficult to use." More accurately, the AI Exclusive Card is responsible for payment capability, not the complete purchasing capability.

What got stuck is the Agent's execution link.

A task of "help me order a cup of milk tea" involves at least the following steps:

Identifying user needs, calling third-party platforms, completing account authorization, selecting the correct product, confirming fulfillment methods, initiating payment, user confirming payment, completing subsequent fulfillment ......

The AI Exclusive Card only covers the "payment" part. As for the previous steps of product identification, platform redirection, account authorization, product matching, and the subsequent delivery or redemption, they heavily depend on the abilities of Agents and third-party Skills.

So in this experience, AI indeed triggered the payment, but did not complete a "correct purchase."

This is also a common issue faced by many AI Agents at present: they can invoke tools, but may not yet be able to stably complete complex real-world tasks.

6. Current mechanism: users still hold the final payment confirmation authority

From a security perspective, the AI Exclusive Card does not allow AI to bypass users and make direct payments.

The current mechanism can be roughly summarized as follows:

This design is relatively restrained and fits the current state of AI consumption scenarios.

If AI could make payments autonomously, the risks would actually be very high: buying the wrong products, placing duplicate orders, mis-subscribing, and being induced to consume would all become real issues.

Therefore, the WeChat AI Exclusive Card now functions more like a controllable balance, every transaction requiring confirmation, and separated from the main account—essentially a WeChat small wallet.

Finally

If you just want to experience the WeChat AI Exclusive Payment Card, you can try to activate it, but it is recommended to start with low amounts, low risks, and digital service scenarios. However, please remember the following three points:

1️⃣ Recharge a small balance first, do not recharge too much at once.

2️⃣ Before payment, carefully check the product name, amount, and fulfillment method.

3️⃣ Do not assume the AI Agent understands your real needs, especially when it involves specific stores, delivery, group purchase coupons, and packages.

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