(Yicai) Dec. 9 -- Artificial intelligence will change everything, but this does not mean it can decide all, Alibaba Group Holding's founder Jack Ma said at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group, which spun off from the e-commerce titan 12 years ago.

Every era has given each generation different possibilities and challenges, Ma noted at the event held yesterday. Our generation was lucky to seize the opportunities of the internet era 20 years ago, while the changes brought by the AI era over the next 20 years will go beyond everyone's imagination because it will be an even greater period, he added.

"What we can do in the future should be what we have adhered to over the past 20 years, allowing technology to bring progress and change to the lives of every person," Ma pointed out.

Everyone in the audience was very excited during Ma's speech at the event, an employee of Ant Group pointed out.

On the same day, Ant Group's Eric Jing announced that he would step down from the chief executive post and be succeeded by President and Chief Financial Officer Cyril Han effective March 1. "I will focus on supporting Han and the entire management team as chairman of the group," Jing added.

Han became president of Ant Group in March and is responsible for the Hangzhou-based company's digital payment, digital interconnection, and digital finance businesses. Ant Group and its mobile payment platform Alipay will firmly embrace the AI wave, creating the ultimate user experience, he said previously.

Ant Group's investment in AI and user experience may continue to increase as Han takes charge of the firm's various businesses and daily management duties. However, the company still faces significant growth pressure.

Net profit nearly tripled to CNY7.5 billion (USD1 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from a year ago, after falling 24 percent to CNY23.8 billion (USD3.3 billion) last year from the prior one, according to Alibaba's latest earnings report. The major challenge for Han will be how to increase the commercial revenue of more businesses.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev