11 Best Affordable AI Stocks to Buy Now

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9. NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE)

Forward P/E: 9.35

Stock Upside Potential: 45.16%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 22

NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) is one of the best affordable AI stocks to buy now. On December 10, NICE (NASDAQ:NICE) unveiled its CXone Mpower platform on a locally hosted cloud in South Africa, backed by redundant data centers in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. While the stock has declined roughly 35% over the past six months, the company continues to show financial strength, holding more cash than debt and maintaining a gross margin of about 67% as it expands its global footprint.

By hosting the platform entirely within South Africa, NICE ensures that applications and customer data remain in-country, meeting local regulatory requirements. The company has also invested in regional telecom infrastructure so voice traffic stays local, helping to lower latency and improve call quality. The rollout is aimed at banks, other highly regulated industries, and large organizations upgrading their customer engagement systems.

CXone Mpower combines NICE’s agentic AI capabilities, strengthened through its acquisition of Cognigy, to support both automated and live-agent interactions. The platform is designed to manage customer journeys across multiple channels while integrating workforce management tools, positioning South Africa as a growing center for AI-powered customer service.

According to NICE, the launch is part of a broader expansion across Africa, with additional deployments already in progress in several countries. The company plans to work closely with local partners through briefings and workshops. Earlier in the week, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives downgraded the stock to Hold and set a $120 price target.

NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ:NICE) provides AI-driven cloud solutions that support customer engagement and financial crime prevention across global markets. Its product portfolio includes CXone Mpower for automating and enhancing customer service, Evidencentral for managing digital evidence, X-Sight for advanced AI applications, and Xceed for anti–money laundering and fraud detection. In addition, the company offers data intelligence tools designed to help organizations identify, monitor, and reduce financial crime risks.

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