Baidu has begun integrating the fast‑rising AI agent OpenClaw directly into its flagship search app, opening the door for 700 million monthly users to access advanced task‑automation tools just ahead of China’s Lunar New Year holiday.
The move marks one of the company’s most significant consumer‑facing upgrades in years, as competition intensifies among Chinese tech giants racing to commercialise AI at scale.
Until now, OpenClaw — an Austrian‑developed, open‑source agent — was primarily accessed through chat platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
Baidu rollout
Baidu’s rollout means users who opt in will be able to message the agent within the search app to handle everyday digital tasks, from scheduling and file organisation to writing code.
The company is also extending OpenClaw’s capabilities across its wider ecosystem, including e‑commerce and cloud services.
The timing is strategic. Lunar New Year is one of the most competitive periods for user acquisition in China’s internet sector, and Baidu’s rivals are also accelerating their AI deployments.
Alibaba, for example, has woven its Qwen chatbot into platforms such as Taobao and Fliggy, enabling end‑to‑end shopping journeys without leaving the app — a shift that has already generated more than 120 million consumer orders in a six‑day period this month.
Popularity surge
OpenClaw’s surge in popularity reflects a broader trend: AI agents are moving beyond conversational novelty and into practical automation, capable of navigating apps, managing email and performing multi‑step online tasks.
Yet the rapid adoption has also drawn warnings from cybersecurity firms, including CrowdStrike, about the risks of granting such agents deep access to enterprise systems.
For Baidu, the integration signals a clear intent to keep pace with global AI leaders while reinforcing its dominance in China’s search market.
For users, it marks the arrival of a more hands‑on, task‑driven AI era — one embedded directly into the tools they already rely on daily, with instant access to millions of users.