{"slug": "tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners", "title": "Tencent WorkBuddy Debuts Co-Branded Hardware with 100+ Partners", "summary": "Tencent WorkBuddy launched its open platform on September 2, debuting 9 co-branded smart hardware devices, over 30 industry applications, and more than 100 initial ecosystem partners, marking the first open platform in China's AI Agent track to connect hardware, applications, and developers. The platform aims to become an 'operating system for the Agent era,' with hardware partners such as Plaud, Rokid, iFlytek, and Anker providing devices that serve as the 'ears and eyes' of the AI agent.", "body_md": "These days, it's not just people who need to find partners for work, AI is also starting to team up.\n\nOn September 2, the Tencent WorkBuddy open platform officially went online, debuting alongside 9 co-branded smart hardware devices, more than 30 industry applications, and over 100 initial ecosystem partners.\n\nGlasses, sound cards, microphones, headphones, keyboards and mice... at the Tencent WorkBuddy Eco-Conference, I basically saw a wide range of popular AI hardware that's currently in vogue.\n\nYes, they are all connected to WorkBuddy now.\n\nThis is hardly an eco-conference... it's basically a small hardware exhibition\n\nThis is the first open platform in the domestic AI Agent track to simultaneously connect the three-layer ecosystem of hardware, applications, and developers. It is also the first time WorkBuddy has fully unveiled its open ecosystem strategy since its launch in March this year.\n\nAccording to Liu Yi, Vice President of Tencent Cloud and head of Tencent CodeBuddy & WorkBuddy:\n\nTrue productivity has never depended on how powerful a tool is, but rather on how many capabilities it can connect and how many scenarios it can be applied to.\n\nAt this eco-conference, Tencent hopes to develop WorkBuddy into an \"operating system for the Agent era\", making it a platform that can carry all tools.\n\n## Equipping AI with Ears and Eyes\n\nWorkBuddy's initial batch of co-branded hardware includes products from brands such as Plaud, Rokid, Ying Shi, You Lan Zi, iFlytek, Anker, Momax, and JD Jingzao.\n\nA glance at the list reveals that products for recording and voice collection account for a significant proportion.\n\nWhy these devices?\n\nLin Zuolu, the person in charge of the open ecosystem for Tencent's WorkBuddy, explained that with the development of large language models to date, they can now understand a person's intentions from a single sentence and then plan tasks and call up tools.\n\nBased on language-based interaction methods, voice-based hardware is a more natural fit.\n\nCompared to sitting in front of a computer and typing, it's obviously easier to summon Agent by simply shouting a command on a mobile device.\n\nNow, if you walk into a conference room wearing smart glasses that are responsible for audio recording and photography, WorkBuddy can automatically handle transcription, meeting minutes, task lists, and even draft follow-up emails in the background.\n\nThe same applies to external interviews. The content heard and seen along the way can be stored and recalled later, making it easy to follow up on previous conversations, such as \"what did the client say last week\", by simply asking.\n\nThe glasses take the lead, while Agent follows up. Even if you switch to a phone or computer halfway through, tasks, memories, and outputs can still continue uninterrupted.\n\nIn this combination, hardware manufacturers don't need to develop their own AI from scratch. After accessing WorkBuddy, devices become the ears and eyes of Agent in the real world.\n\nSingle sign-on enables seamless connectivity across multiple endpoints, including hardware, apps, PCs, and web platforms, with accounts, tasks, memories, and products flowing freely between devices.\n\nLin Zuoru stated:\n\nWe believe that hardware will be a very important external device agent in the future.\n\nWorkBuddy has currently accessed over 30 brands and more than 10 types of hardware products, centered around five categories of \"listening, watching, recording, chatting, and collaborating\", covering products such as smart glasses, audio recording cards, microphones, headphones, desktop companion devices, keyboard and mouse, PCs and tablets, smart wearables, and mobile phones.\n\n## Tencent's Nubia to be Utilized by Industry Experts\n\nHowever, being able to hear and see is only the first step.\n\nIf Agent is to conduct research, look up legal clauses, and analyze operational data, it still needs to know how to perform these tasks.\n\nTencent has also brought in another group of partners, those responsible for \"teaching AI to work\".\n\nWorkBuddy has launched the \"Buddy App\" entry point, a branded AI workstation built by partners based on the WorkBuddy Agent platform, targeting specific industries and scenarios.\n\nPartners do not need to develop AI in-house, they can integrate their own scenarios, business context, tool capabilities, and brand to obtain a complete AI Agent office product.\n\nPartners including Tongdaxin, Guangfa Securities, E Fund, Beida Fabao, Weimob, Beisen, Fanruan, Meitu Design Studio, Tencent Healthcare, and Tencent SSV have integrated their data, tools, and workflows.\n\nThe initial batch includes over 30 industry applications, covering more than 20 fields such as finance, SaaS, law, healthcare, education, charity, design, and others.\n\nWhy are we recruiting so many people? Tencent said: Because we can't do it alone.\n\nThe WorkBuddy team excels at models, context management, and Agent runtime environments, but financial institutions possess research and investment data, legal platforms are familiar with search and practical procedures, and SaaS manufacturers are more aware of which tables and systems enterprises get stuck on every day.\n\nSo, Tencent provides the platform, and its partners bring in practical experience from various industries.\n\nLin Zhaolu also gave a simple definition of the currently popular Skill: \"an instruction manual for models.\"\n\nThe model can make inferences, but it's not born with the ability to prepare lessons, conduct research, or manage business processes - these specific skills still need to be taught to it by people who are familiar with the field.\n\nDevelopers can also contribute to the platform. Three types of capabilities, Skill, Expert, and Connector, have been simultaneously opened, allowing developers to add methods for Agents to perform tasks, provide professional assistance, and connect to external systems.\n\nThe Connector supports both MCP and CLI schemes, allowing it to connect to any external service.\n\n## Doubao Enters Government, Education, and Media Sectors in Less Than Half a Year\n\nWorkBuddy is actually a very young product - it was launched in March this year and has been online for less than half a year.\n\nHowever, over the past half year, it has iterated at a rapid pace, with over 50 version updates, and has been implemented in more than 50 industries, including government affairs, education, retail, finance, media, and transportation.\n\nA few representative cases are as follows:\n\nIn the public services sector, \"Bay Engine·WorkBuddy\" was officially launched in August, providing AI-powered smart office capabilities for the Guangdong government system, with the Guangdong Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau and other provincial units being among the first to carry out dozens of scenario connections and pilot projects.\n\nIn the education sector, more than 6,000 primary and secondary school teachers in Laizhou, Shandong Province are equipped with AI-assisted teaching tools. WorkBuddy, in conjunction with Tencent's Penguin Teacher Assistant, has introduced 33 educational experts and 15 teaching skills, covering all scenarios including lesson preparation and teaching research.\n\nIn the media sector, WorkBuddy \"joined\" the CCTV reporting team, deeply participating in CCTV's coverage of the Davos Forum and the WAIC World Artificial Intelligence Conference.\n\nLin Zhaolu mentioned that many traditional enterprises have a certain scale of sales, but their internal office efficiency and operational analysis efficiency are not high, and they are still using outdated software from several years ago, with updates requiring downloads of several terabytes of installation packages, and they are also worried about their reports crashing.\n\nWhen they find that using WorkBuddy can quickly do business analysis and be more satisfied, the satisfaction of the first use is the most typical multiplier effect.\n\nHe said:\n\nAfter working with our ecosystem partners to create more scenario-based Buddy applications, I believe this multiplier effect will double, or even increase exponentially.\n\nIn addition, among these applications, there is a special case: Gongyi Buddy.\n\nThe daily work of a non-profit organization is quite tedious, including organizing sign-in sheets, photos, and reports after events, updating records to advance projects, and handling invoices, filings, and donor data on a daily basis.\n\nTencent's SSV breaks down these tasks into 11 scenario capsules and 42 scenario capabilities, backed by 15 intelligent entities.\n\nThe Public Welfare Buddy can assist with processing funding applications, invoices, due diligence, and interpretation of charity laws, and can also generate daily, weekly, and monthly reports. During the 99 Public Welfare period, it can also generate the \"99 Love Battle Report\".\n\nHowever, the AI-generated content cannot be directly submitted. According to the product settings, the generated content still needs to be reviewed and confirmed by the staff of the public welfare organization.\n\nInstitutions such as Yi Foundation have already participated in the initial trial. Institutions that have entered Tencent's charity platform or digital toolbox and completed certification can also apply for 5,000 WorkBuddy points per month in 2026.\n\n## Ecosystems Are the Outcome, Not the Goal\n\nTencent's WorkBuddy has simultaneously connected with over 100 fellow applications, making for a grand spectacle.\n\nHowever, when asked if the ecosystem is already in place, Lin Zuolü responded:\n\nOpenness is what we need to work on, and the ecosystem is the outcome.\n\nHis logic is that ecosystems cannot be fully planned, and they will not necessarily develop as one wishes.\n\nGoing back to the source, whether the product is good enough and the determination to be open and the design are reasonable is key. If enough people use it, talented individuals from various industries will be willing to invest in building capabilities and operating their own businesses.\n\nToday marks the first day of the open platform's release, and Baijia is one of the partners we initially saw with a strong willingness to cooperate, but this does not equate to the outcome of the ecosystem.\n\nHe said the team values the scenario-based applications being frequently used by users with different professional profiles, and ecosystem partners gaining development benefits in the process.\n\nCurrently, the platform's payment, distribution, and operational tools for developers are still under construction. Some applications that have been integrated with WorkBuddy also have limited functionality compared to their original clients, such as some financial terminals that temporarily cannot import data in bulk.\n\nLin Zhaolu explained that it's not necessary for a partner to migrate all of their capabilities into WorkBuddy.\n\nWorkBuddy is an intelligent entity where tasks are automated. Each buddy will independently determine which capabilities are more efficient in Agent scenarios and interact using natural language.\n\nReading a long article is a better experience in an immersive browser, rather than having an Agent read it and provide a 30-word summary, as the needs are different.\n\nAs for who is more proactive, his response was also very candid: WorkBuddy's willingness to open up is very firm and proactive from this perspective. However, the ability to attract what kind of developers and partners through openness depends on like-minded individuals joining in, and it's not possible to make a simple comparison.\n\nSo, interested friends can consider accessing the WorkBuddy open platform, the link is below:\n\nWorkBuddy's official website is https://open.WorkBuddy.cn, providing users with convenient access to its services and products.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners", "canonical_source": "https://chinaonchina.com/article/tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners", "published_at": "2026-09-03 15:17:32+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-03 15:25:12.301396+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["Tencent WorkBuddy", "Tencent Cloud", "Liu Yi", "Lin Zuolu", "Plaud", "Rokid", "iFlytek", "Anker"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tencent-workbuddy-debuts-co-branded-hardware-with-100-partners.jsonld"}}