Tencent’s WorkBuddy signals a shift toward business-focused AI

Bloomberg reports Tencent executive Dowson Tong turned to WorkBuddy after founder Pony Ma called the company’s AI efforts “a leaky ship” in summer 2026. The assistant combines messaging and office tools with AI agents that can produce reports. Bloomberg says it served 32 million monthly users by that fall, more than its rivals combined. Tong says Tencent is prioritizing enterprise agents over consumer chatbots in the early stages to better monetize AI.