Honor has unveiled a set of AI-powered tools that promise to make online shopping faster, cheaper, and more personal — right from its smartphones.
As Apple holds off releasing its AI features in China, Honor is betting that an on-device assistant capable of finding hidden coupons and discounts could help it climb back into the country’s top smartphone rankings.
Key Takeaways
- Honor’s new AI tool searches e-commerce apps to find coupons and better prices.
- The features roll out on the Magic8 smartphone and other models this week.
- Apple’s AI system still isn’t available in China, leaving room for rivals.
- The tools are powered by Honor’s Yoyo chatbot inside MagicOS.
- Honor aims to rejoin China’s top three smartphone brands by year-end.
Honor’s new AI shopping tool, built into its Yoyo assistant, scans major Chinese e-commerce platforms like JD.com and Taobao to uncover coupons and lower prices for users. It’s part of Honor’s plan to boost smartphone sales and compete with Apple in China’s growing AI race.
A New AI Shopping Experience for China’s Mobile Users
Chinese smartphone maker Honor has launched a series of artificial intelligence features that bring online deal-hunting directly to the user’s device. With its latest AI upgrade, shoppers can simply ask the Honor phone to find “the best deal” or “available coupons,” and the system searches platforms such as JD.com and Alibaba’s Taobao to locate discounts automatically.
In one example shared with CNBC, the AI shopping assistant found a 20% cheaper option by surfacing a coupon that would normally be easy to miss. The features debut this week on the company’s new Magic8 smartphone series, just ahead of China’s massive Nov. 11 Singles Day shopping festival — the country’s busiest online retail period of the year.
Honor’s Strategic Timing and Market Ambition
The timing of this launch is deliberate. Honor hopes its AI-powered features will help it break back into the top three smartphone brands in China by market share before the end of the year, according to Fei Fang, president of products at Honor Device, who spoke to CNBC in an exclusive interview.
According to market data from Counterpoint Research, Honor currently holds about 13% of China’s smartphone market. That puts it just behind Apple, which stands at 15%, while Huawei and Vivo each command around 18%.
“We believe this will happen, and we are working in that direction,” Fang said in remarks translated from Mandarin.
AI Takes Center Stage — and Apps Take a Backseat
The broader goal, Fang explained, isn’t just to improve shopping. It’s to redefine how people interact with their phones altogether. In Honor’s vision, users won’t need to open apps directly — instead, they’ll talk to the phone’s AI, which will handle multiple steps at once.
These features are powered by “Yoyo,” Honor’s AI chatbot, embedded within MagicOS, the company’s Android-based operating system. Users can activate it by voice or gesture to perform tasks ranging from finding the lowest online prices to booking a taxi with a simple prompt like “get me a ride home.”
The AI assistant also provides personalized recommendations — such as suggesting nearby restaurants or showing the best camera angles for photography — while keeping user data on-device. Honor says personal information never leaves the smartphone, addressing growing privacy concerns among Chinese consumers.
Partnerships and Technical Backbone
Honor’s AI push is supported by major partnerships. In September, the company signed a strategic collaboration with Alibaba to co-develop AI smartphone features that integrate with Alibaba’s apps like Taobao, Tmall, and Fliggy.
The technology relies partly on a system called the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — developed by U.S.-based AI firm Anthropic — which allows different apps to interact with Honor’s AI securely and efficiently. This setup enables the AI to complete tasks that require coordination across multiple apps, such as comparing membership-based coupons or combining deals from different merchants.
Honor’s system has scaled quickly: its AI can now perform more than 3,000 tasks, up from just 200 in July, according to company data shared with media outlets.
Spending Big to Build a Smart Future
To support this expansion, Honor plans to invest $10 billion in AI over the next five years — a massive commitment revealed in March. Much of that budget will go toward product integration, local model training, and developer partnerships to grow the AI ecosystem around Honor’s devices.
Fei Fang admitted that deploying third-party AI tools like Kuaishou’s Kling video generator adds cost pressure, but the company is offering these features free to consumers for now to build early adoption.
“This is one of our current challenges,” Fang said. “We have invested quite a lot of money in AI, but we believe we must first create value for consumers before commercialization.”
Apple’s Position: Present, but Cautious
Meanwhile, Apple — Honor’s biggest global competitor — has yet to roll out its AI features in China. Although Alibaba Group Chair Joe Tsai announced earlier this year that the company would collaborate with Apple on AI tools for the Chinese market, no official launch timeline has been announced.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook recently visited Shanghai and confirmed that the iPhone Air will begin sales in China this month, following the iPhone 17 rollout. But without local AI capabilities, Apple faces a rare opening for rivals like Honor and Huawei to win attention during the AI boom.
What’s Next: AI Beyond Shopping
Honor will reveal even more AI features at its ecosystem conference on October 23, expanding into areas like sports tracking, health insights, and companionship assistance. These will continue to build on its Yoyo platform — a move aimed at creating an AI-first smartphone ecosystem.
Beyond China, Honor also collaborates with Google for AI integrations and currently ranks fourth in Europe by market share, according to Counterpoint. Although no overseas release date has been announced for its AI shopping tool, Honor previewed similar capabilities earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where its demo AI agent could make restaurant reservations through OpenTable.
The Bigger Picture
Honor’s bet underscores how AI is reshaping the smartphone industry. Rather than competing only on camera specs or chipsets, brands are now racing to offer smart assistants that feel genuinely useful — from comparing prices to automating everyday actions.
Whether this shift will truly change how consumers use their phones remains to be seen. But as AI becomes central to mobile experiences, Honor’s bold rollout puts it firmly in the race for China’s tech-savvy audience.
Conclusion
Honor’s AI shopping features mark a turning point for how Chinese users interact with their smartphones. By combining everyday convenience with on-device intelligence, the company aims not just to sell more phones — but to redefine what a “smart” phone can do.