What's Going On With Alibaba Stock Friday?

Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA stock is trading higher Friday amid reports of 800 billion yuan stimulus to boost liquidity along with the company intensifying its focus on artificial intelligence (AI) to fuel the growth of its e-commerce operations, following an internal memo from founder Jack Ma declaring the advent of the AI e-commerce era.

The company is experimenting with various AI-driven tools across its domestic and international retail sectors, concurrently embarking on a hiring surge for AI-related roles, Technode reports.

The integration of generative AI into Alibaba's core e-commerce business is pivotal for the company.

It aims to enhance sales in the lucrative sector and innovate customer experiences to improve retention rates.

Taobao and Tmall Group, under the leadership of Chief Technology Officer Wu Zeming, have restructured their AI efforts around four primary areas: Alimama (marketing platform), customer apps, merchant apps, and industry-specific apps. Previously, around 20 teams within the group were exploring AI-related ventures.

Also Read: Alibaba Bolsters Southeast Asian Presence: $634M Boost to Lazada Amid Rising Competition

Alibaba's recent Singles Day shopping festival served as a platform to test AI shopping assistants, including Taobao Wenwen, a chatbot providing shopping recommendations.

Additionally, the company introduced several free tools to support merchants in marketing and merchandising during the event.

While sales figures for the festival were not disclosed, Alibaba revealed that the Wenwen chatbot interacted with over five million users, and the merchant tools saw over 1.5 billion uses.

A common goal of Alibaba's AI products is to reduce operational costs for businesses. Aidge, a new tool offering services from translation to localized content, was recently launched, underscoring this objective.

Zhang Kaifu, Vice President of Alibaba International, who leads AI initiatives and oversees a team focusing on large language model training, emphasized Aidge's role in aiding small and medium-sized enterprises.

This AI-centric approach aligns with Alibaba's strategic shift under new management. CEO Eddie Wu, in his first letter to staff, emphasized a "user first, AI-driven" vision.

This shift comes as Alibaba faces increasing competition, highlighted by a critical internal note and Jack Ma's call for innovative ideas following rival PDD Holdings Inc’s PDD market valuation surge.

Price Action: BABA shares traded higher by 3.33% at $74.93 on the last check Friday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.