Tencent's voice assistant may debut later this year

Tencent Holdings Ltd has been piloting a voice-based interactive system for months before an official launch possibly later this year, a company executive said.

Dubbed "Xiaowei", the dialogue assistant has already interested companies like Spring Airlines, Sony and Guangzhou Auto Group during a trial run, said Zhou Jie, senior director of Tencent's WeChat, an app boasting over 1 billion users for communications, payments and other purposes.

"This will be a product of 'strategic importance' for WeChat," said Zhou. "We uphold the principle of 'dialogue is service', and is committed to connecting the world with voice."