11 AI Stocks Analysts Are Watching Closely

6. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 130

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) is one of the 11 AI Stocks Analysts Are Watching Closely. On January 15, Morgan Stanley analyst Gary Yu reiterated an Overweight rating on the stock with a $180.00 price target.

Firm analysts believe Qwen’s AI assistant rise plays a critical role in BABA’s agentic AI pivot, anticipating 2C applications and agentic AI developments to be the “key AI focus this year.”

Morgan Stanley noted how Qwen AI assistant can now perform over 400 daily tasks through integration with the Alibaba ecosystem, offering one-stop solutions across various services. The application has seen rapid user adoption, with monthly active users (MAU) surpassing 100 million within two months of its launch.

The company anticipates 60-70% of digital-world tasks to be completed by artificial intelligence in the next two years, with the technology significantly improving efficiency for remaining tasks.

2C applications and agentic AI developments are likely to be the key AI focus this year, with Qwen likely to become an all-in-one superapp and life assistant within Alibaba’s ecosystem.

“Our view: We expect 2C applications and agentic AI developments to be the key AI focus this year, and we note that internet platforms (Bytedance, Tencent) have been actively ramping up 2C offerings recently. Leveraging the Alibaba ecosystem, including Taobao/Eleme (e-com/QC), Fliggy (travel), Amap (map) and Alipay (payment), we view Qwen as well positioned to become an all-in-one AI superapp and life assistant. Tencent is catching up on AI model enhancement, though agentic product launches may come later. We expect Qwen’s DAU uptick and further improvement in agentic capabilities (such as using external tools) for future iterations of Qwen models to be another shareprice driver in addition to cloud revenue growth (est. 35%+ in F3Q and +40% in F27). However, higher marketing spending on 2C adoption may result in higher all other losses (est. RMB7bn in F3Q).”

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA) is an internet giant that offers e-commerce services in China and internationally.