Meituan Launches CatPaw, a Full-Scenario AI Agent Platform Covering 90,000 Internal Employees

Meituan today officially launched CatPaw, a full-scenario AI Agent platform that marks a significant push by the Chinese local services giant into enterprise AI deployment. The platform serves two distinct audiences: individual users get a ready-to-use AI workbench, while enterprises gain Agent development and hosting capabilities to build collaborative, manageable AI digital employees.

For local life merchants — Meituan's core customer base — CatPaw's primary value lies in information aggregation and intelligent assistance. Within user-authorized and rule-configured boundaries, CatPaw automatically aggregates scattered data including sales figures, group-buy verification records, customer reviews, and inventory levels. It identifies operational anomalies and pending action items, then generates usable deliverables such as reports.

Crucially, key decision-making authority remains with human operators. CatPaw is designed to assist rather than replace — pricing adjustments, promotional campaigns, and other core business decisions still require merchant confirmation. The time saved lets operators focus on product selection, service quality, and strategic judgment.

CatPaw did not start from scratch. The platform previously existed as an AI IDE product undergoing beta testing within Meituan, and has since evolved into a full-scenario Agent platform. Internal data shows CatPaw has been deployed across 90,000 Meituan employees, with over 30,000 Agents built, and has been validated across verticals including restaurant chains, beauty service chains, and pet hospitals.

From an industry perspective, CatPaw's launch signals that Chinese internet giants are accelerating the shift of AI Agent technology from developer tooling to operational business layers. Unlike Cursor or Copilot — which focus on coding productivity — CatPaw embeds directly into local merchants' daily workflows, reaching a broader non-technical user base.

The key question ahead is whether CatPaw can gain traction beyond Meituan's ecosystem with third-party merchants. Meituan's vast local merchant network provides natural adoption channels, but merchant acceptance, depth of usage, and actual ROI will determine whether CatPaw grows from an internal tool into a true open platform.