The Volkswagen Group is set to incorporate AI agents in some of its cars in China that will let drivers control features with voice commands.
The automaker revealed its plans as part of its “Agentic AI for All” roadmap, unveiled during a preview of the Auto China 2026 show, which is being held this week in Beijing.
The development — part of the auto group’s “In China, for China” strategy, which focuses on locally developed systems for the Chinese market — will see on-board agents enable “highly intuitive, human-like interaction between vehicle and customer,”, according to a release.
The models featuring the new tech will all be based on VW’s new scalable China Electric Architecture (CEA), which has been developed specifically for the country in tandem with the German automotive giant’s software subsidiary, Cariad, and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng.
Among the vehicles will be the ID.AURA T6, a mid-size SUV jointly developed with Chinese manufacturer FAW. The SUV is making its debut in production form at the Beijing show, was unveiled by VW at its preview event.
Each agent incorporates a locally trained large language model that enables it to interact with occupants on a natural level, unlike more basic voice assistants, which are able to react to simple requests but don’t offer much more than that.
VW claims that this means each agent “understands user intent, executes complex, multi-system actions, and makes contextual decisions,” although it did not provide any examples of specific requests or conversations.
However, speaking to CNBC, Thomas Ulbrich, the company’s CTO for China, went further, claiming that to enable the car to be more of a “companion,” VW had created a tool with “personality.” Ulbrich also told CNBC that the agent drew on tech from local companies Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu.
VW said it had addressed security concerns by designing the system to run exclusively on board, not on the cloud, meaning that data never leaves the vehicle.
The inclusion of an on-board agent promises to be only the start of VW’s agentic AI roadmap, with the automaker looking at more developments promised next year with the arrival of the next-generation CEA 2.0, which will unify “intelligent” driving capabilities and cockpit features in a more powerful central compute system.
“This upgraded foundation will enable efficient vehicle operation through a multi-agent AI system, comprising coordinated agents for driving, cockpit experience and ecosystem services,” VW company said in the release.
Oliver Blume, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, hailed the debut of the agents in the CEA lineup as a breakthrough.
“With this step, the Volkswagen Group is the first global automaker to deploy agentic AI across an entire vehicle portfolio in China at scale,” he said in a statement. VW did not mention, though, when other markets might expect to see similar tech introduced.