Author｜Ren Tianqin

Editor｜Wang Yimo

Two Tech Pathways Spark Long-Term Rivalry

Internet behemoths are aggressively staking their claims in the desktop intelligent agent arena, diverging into two primary development strategies: proprietary platforms and multi-model aggregation. The contest for the next-gen office gateway has transitioned from product unveilings to actual user acquisition.

Offline Battle for User Attention

In recent months, leading Chinese internet firms have intensified their product positioning and integration efforts for desktop office agent solutions, officially igniting a fierce clash for the 'next-gen enterprise office gateway.'

In this competitive landscape, key players have revealed their trump cards: Alibaba has seamlessly merged three offerings—QoderWork, Wukong, and MuleRun—to launch 'Qianwen Office,' aiming to harness DingTalk's extensive B-end ecosystem to forge an AI-driven productivity platform for enterprises.

Tencent has concentrated its efforts on promoting WorkBuddy, which deeply integrates WeChat and WeCom (WeChat Work). Leveraging the viral spread of its social ecosystem and an extremely low barrier to entry, it has secured a dominant position in monthly visits.

Baidu has unveiled Baidu Dazi DuMate, a desktop-level AI intelligent agent that taps into Baidu's ecosystem capabilities, such as cloud storage and document libraries, through skill components, thereby integrating existing product resources.

ByteDance has adopted a dual-pronged strategy, advancing Doubao Office, which is deeply integrated with Feishu, while also expanding TRAE Work from a developer-centric tool to a general-purpose office scenario for all employees.

With a flurry of product launches targeting high-frequency office needs like document creation, data analysis, and plan formulation, the competitive landscape continues to homogenize.

However, the underlying competitive logic is undergoing a profound shift. AI office tools are evolving from mere 'answer-providers' to autonomous execution agents that 'act on behalf of users.'

Thus, the current competitive focus has shifted from 'whose model parameters are superior' to 'whose task success rate is higher and unit cost is lower,' as well as who can become the first interactive interface users encounter upon powering on their computers.

Looking ahead, the office agent market is poised to evolve into a multi-tiered competition. The first to deeply embed AI into enterprise workflows, enabling users to develop indispensable 'muscle memory,' will likely dominate and reshape the enterprise software distribution landscape.

According to Analysys data, by June 2026, the combined monthly visits of 17 mainstream desktop AI office intelligent agents in China surpassed 60 million. Among them, Tencent's WorkBuddy led with 20.97 million monthly visits, followed by ByteDance's TRAE IDE domestic version with 12.79 million.

Tech giants are expanding their marketing efforts beyond online channels, actively deploying offline community advertising, signaling a shift in the industry's competitive focus.

Dual Strategies for Comprehensive Coverage

Behind the fierce market competition lies a bold strategic realignment within tech giants, with ByteDance's organizational restructuring serving as a prime example. In late July, ByteDance completed the integration of Doubao, Feishu, and Volcano Engine businesses.

The previously independently operated Feishu team was split, with the Feishu product team merged into the Doubao system and reporting lines adjusted; the Feishu commercialization GTM team was integrated with Volcano Engine to form a ToB service organization named 'Creativity Service Platform.'

Despite Feishu's steady business growth, with most new clients also purchasing AI-related services, ByteDance's push for organizational restructuring underscores the group's commitment to AI office solutions.

Post-restructuring, the Doubao Enterprise Edition, built on Feishu's document, meeting, and group collaboration capabilities, has initiated targeted internal testing among existing Feishu clients, integrating complete enterprise workflows.

While Doubao Office often grabs the spotlight, it was TRAE Work that first engaged in offline competition with WorkBuddy, highlighting ByteDance's typical dual-track strategy.

Doubao Office is deeply rooted in the B-end enterprise collaboration ecosystem, leveraging Feishu resources to serve organizational clients; TRAE Work extends from a programming tool to target individual professionals.

With both product lines advancing simultaneously, ByteDance is mitigating internal risks while comprehensively covering the C-end and B-end markets externally, attempting to find the optimal commercialization path in this yet-to-be-defined arena.

No One-Size-Fits-All Solution

Within the competitive landscape, product objectives are converging, but underlying technological approaches are clearly diverging.

Qianwen Office and Doubao Office have opted for the self-developed large model route, relying on their proprietary platforms for continuous iteration, with model capabilities directly setting the upper limit for agent task processing. TRAE Work and WorkBuddy, on the other hand, primarily feature a multi-model aggregation model, integrating multiple large models into a unified workstation.

Both approaches face challenges, and the industry has yet to find a standard solution.

The self-developed route demands sustained massive investment in computational resources, covering both model training and online inference costs; the core challenge of the aggregation route lies in intelligent scheduling strategies—how to automatically match the optimal model for different tasks while balancing inference costs and output effectiveness remains an urgent engineering challenge for the industry.

The industry's growth potential is immense. IDC predicts that by 2026, the Chinese enterprise-level AI intelligent agent market will reach RMB 44.9 billion, indicating significant long-term growth prospects.

According to iiMedia Research, the usage rate of AI assistants among white-collar workers in China has exceeded 57%, with penetration rates continuing to rise in scenarios like document editing and data analysis. Given the abundance of repetitive tasks in office settings, intelligent agents offer clear value in cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, ensuring the sector's long-term development potential.

However, it's crucial to note that the industry is still in its infancy, with user payment habits not yet fully cultivated and more enterprise pilots than large-scale implementations. Data shows that while over 60% of enterprises have incorporated AI intelligent agents into their medium- to long-term digital strategies, only 17% have achieved company-wide large-scale implementation.

Model hallucinations, enterprise data security, and sustained high invocation costs are all significant factors restricting commercialization progress.

In essence, the competition for office agents revolves around control over the next-gen computer desktop.

Regardless of the technological path chosen, only by continuously addressing real office pain points, integrating complete workflows, and establishing a sustainable business model can companies stand firm in this prolonged AI productivity competition.