Qwen App has added an Office Assistant — a separate productivity mode that goes beyond chat. It can operate your computer and browser, autonomously break down tasks, call on Skills, link email and calendar, run on a schedule, and take jobs from your phone while your computer does the work. The final output can be delivered as documents, spreadsheets, and web pages.
Alibaba had only recently opened public beta testing for Qwen Office (千问办公). That product does the same thing: control a computer, use tools, run complex tasks, and hand back Office documents and web pages. Before that, Alibaba had already merged three office agents into Qwen Office. Now Qwen App is building its own version.
The horse-racing isn't entirely surprising: the two products sit in different divisions under Alibaba's ATH organization. Qwen App belongs to ATH's Qwen Division, led by Wu Jia and aimed at consumer users. Qwen Office belongs to ATH's Qwen Office Division, led by Chen Yusen, who also oversees DingTalk. Their names are just two characters apart; their features are already identical.