Chinese large-model unicorn Zhipu AI has hired a veteran to head up its AI assistant, according to 36Kr.

According to a report on Thursday, Hu Yunhua, a former Microsoft Research Asia fellow, senior technologist at Alibaba DAMO Academy, and chief data officer of Alipay China, has joined Zhipu as the head of its C-end app, "Zhipu Qingyan".

Previously, he founded AI company AbitAI in 2016, which focuses on conversational intelligent marketing systems.

The previous head of Zhipu Qingyan reportedly had a technical background, which also allowed Zhipu Qingyan to quickly integrate modeling features, such as video generation, video calls, and emotional speech.

Currently, Zhipu Qingyan has more than 25 million users and an estimated annual revenue of more than 10 million yuan.

However, with multiple large vendors coming down the pipeline and increased competition for conversation tools, Zhipu Qingyan's growth has passed the stage of new technology-driven customer acquisition.

Relying on constant integration of modeling features is diminishing its role in expanding user scale and increasing retention.

Zhipu has not yet made a public response to the report.