BMW Group China, in collaboration with technology giant Alibaba Group, officially unveiled the new generation of the intelligent voice assistant, BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant. The long-awaited premiere of the innovative system took place at the Beijing International Auto Show 2026, where the companies demonstrated a new stage of their strategic partnership, extended until 2025. At the exhibition, the automaker for the first time in China showcased the BMW Panoramic iDrive projection system on conceptual models from the Neue Klasse lineup. The updated voice assistant is based on Alibaba's foundational Qwen large language model and is deeply integrated with the Banma Yan AI platform.
To ensure intuitive and human-centric interaction, the German concern developed three specialized intelligent agents, operating based on the Qwen model specifically for the Chinese market. The first agent acts as an advanced travel companion, capable of planning routes while considering numerous constraints. It can accurately locate shopping centers with high ratings, required infrastructure, and specific parking conditions. The second agent is a 24/7 automotive genius, relying on a proprietary database containing over two hundred thousand BMW service records.
The first production vehicle to gain access to this advanced technology will be the new version of the BMW iX3 crossover with an extended wheelbase. Following this model, the innovative agents will be integrated into the luxury sedans of the new BMW 7 Series. This deployment strategy ensures that owners of premium vehicles will be the first to experience an unprecedented level of dynamic interaction with the smart cabin's digital environment. The integration of generative artificial intelligence into on-board systems transforms the standard driving process into a comprehensive experience, where digital assistants organically complement the physical capabilities of the vehicle and solve everyday tasks with maximum comfort.
The seamless operation of the new system is ensured by Alibaba's full-stack infrastructure, combining cloud computing and artificial intelligence algorithms. At the foundational infrastructure level, Alibaba Cloud provides secure, high-performance computing power capable of processing requests and returning responses in milliseconds even in the most complex operating scenarios. At the language model level, BMW Group China leverages Qwen's outstanding capabilities in logical inference and complex task decomposition. Access to these advanced computing resources is facilitated through Alibaba Cloud's flagship Model Studio platform, which provides AI-as-a-Service offerings.
At the application layer of the software architecture, integration is provided by Banma Yan AI technology, which seamlessly connects the cloud's computing capabilities with the vehicle's hardware, enabling intelligent agents to dynamically interact with the physical world. This innovation marks the latest chapter in the decade-long history of successful cooperation between the two corporations, which began in 2015. Historically, the companies' partnership has covered cloud computing, smart manufacturing, and logistics, but the strategic expansion into the field of large language models has brought the enterprises to the forefront of the industrial revolution.
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