Alibaba Unveils Qwen3.5, Targeting Dominance in the "Agentic AI Era"

Chinese tech giant Alibaba has launched Qwen3.5, a powerful new artificial intelligence model designed to independently execute complex tasks across mobile and desktop applications. The release intensifies competition in China's already crowded AI landscape and positions the company at the forefront of the emerging "agentic AI" trend.

Alibaba claims the new model delivers significant improvements in both performance and cost efficiency. According to the company, Qwen3.5 is 60% cheaper to operate and eight times more capable of processing large workloads compared to its predecessor. The model features what Alibaba terms "visual agentic capabilities," enabling it to take autonomous actions across applications — a functionality tailored for the next wave of AI development focused on independent task execution rather than simple query responses.

The launch comes as Alibaba aggressively pursues user growth for its Qwen chatbot in China, a market currently led by ByteDance's Doubao, which has amassed nearly 200 million users. Earlier this month, a coupon giveaway campaign integrated into the Qwen app drove a sevenfold surge in active users, signalling the company's willingness to leverage its e-commerce ecosystem for AI adoption.

Alibaba's announcement follows closely on the heels of ByteDance's Doubao 2.0 release, which similarly emphasised agentic capabilities. Notably, Alibaba's benchmark comparisons for Qwen3.5 focus on outperforming U.S. rivals, including OpenAI's GPT-5.2, Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.5, and Google's Gemini 3 Pro, rather than domestic competitors. The company made no direct mention of DeepSeek, the Chinese startup whose viral rise last year reshaped the global AI landscape and triggered a tech sector selloff.

DeepSeek is expected to release its new-generation model in the coming days, fuelling anticipation given its history of disrupting markets and challenging established players.

Market Sentiment:

The sentiment is highly competitive and strategically significant. Alibaba's Qwen3.5 launch signals a clear pivot toward agentic AI — the next frontier where models move from conversational interfaces to autonomous executors of complex, multi-step tasks. This positions Alibaba at the leading edge of AI evolution, potentially unlocking new enterprise use cases and revenue streams. The aggressive cost reduction (60% cheaper) addresses a key barrier to widespread AI adoption, making the technology more accessible. However, the Chinese AI landscape remains intensely contested, with ByteDance's user dominance and DeepSeek's expected new model looming. For global context, Google's AI efforts through its Gemini models remain a formidable benchmark in capability and enterprise integration, underscoring that U.S. tech giants continue to set the pace even as Chinese competitors narrow the gap. The market will watch whether Qwen3.5's technical claims translate into user adoption and whether Alibaba's ecosystem integration provides a sustainable edge. DeepSeek's imminent release adds another layer of uncertainty, as its previous launch triggered global selloffs and reset expectations. The agentic AI race is accelerating on multiple fronts, with significant implications for both regional dynamics and the broader U.S.-China technology rivalry.

Disclaimer:

This content has been generated using AI technology and is intended for informational purposes only. While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy and relevance, this text should not be considered professional advice or an official statement. Always verify information from authoritative sources before making any decisions. This is not financial advice.