Alibaba’s Dual AI Push: Robotics Breakthrough Meets Shopping Surge

This week, Alibaba Group has accelerated its artificial intelligence strategy through two simultaneous and significant developments. The Chinese tech giant unveiled a new robotics-focused AI system while concurrently managing a massive user surge that temporarily overwhelmed its shopping chatbot. These events highlight both the scale of Alibaba's ambitions and the operational challenges that emerge when deploying new AI services to millions of consumers.

Over the weekend, Alibaba encountered technical difficulties with its Qwen chatbot, triggered by a promotional campaign for the Spring Festival holiday. According to a Reuters report, the coupon initiative generated a staggering 10 million orders within just the first nine hours.

This campaign is part of a broader 3-billion-yuan promotional effort. It allows users to complete purchases on Alibaba's retail platforms directly through chatbot prompts. However, the overwhelming demand forced the temporary suspension of coupon distribution.

On Sunday, Qwen's official Weibo account acknowledged the system was overloaded and asked users to reduce their activity. By Monday, the chatbot was responding to purchase inquiries by stating that interest in "AI Shopping" was excessive and participant numbers were too high. A silver lining for consumers: the coupons remain valid until February 28, 2026. Reports indicated the technical issues were largely resolved by late Monday.

This promotion represents more than a marketing stunt. It appears Alibaba is positioning Qwen as a central interface for its vast app ecosystem, aiming to deeply integrate AI assistants into daily services. The temporary overload serves as a real-world stress test for the system's capacity to evolve from a simple chatbot into a reliable, everyday transaction platform.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Alibaba?

RynnBrain: Advancing into "Physical AI"

In a separate but parallel move, Alibaba introduced RynnBrain today, an AI model engineered specifically for robotics applications. The development comes from the company's internal DAMO Academy. The core objective is to enable robots to achieve a better understanding of their physical environment and more reliably identify objects.

Demonstration videos showcase robots performing tasks such as identifying fruit and placing items into baskets. While these actions seem simple, they are technically demanding, requiring the seamless integration of image recognition, spatial understanding, and movement coordination.

A key strategic element is Alibaba's commitment to open source with this model. Developers worldwide can access and use RynnBrain free of charge. The company is employing the same strategy with its Qwen model family, a approach believed to accelerate the adoption and adaptation of its AI technologies by the global developer community.

Market Context and Forward Look

Alibaba's stock has shown a mixed recent performance, fitting the narrative of ambitious long-term investment amid short-term operational tests. Over a 30-day period, the share price is down 2.25%, but it maintains a strong 28.52% gain over the preceding 12 months.

The coming days will be telling. By the end of February, observers will gain insight into how smoothly Alibaba manages the extended coupon redemption phase from a technical standpoint. Simultaneously, the launch of RynnBrain signals the company's intent to be an early and significant contender in the emerging field of "Physical AI," demonstrating a dual-front advancement in both virtual and physical world applications of artificial intelligence.