Alibaba changed its AI playbook, and the timing's hard to ignore

Alibaba’s latest AI launch is not a routine model refresh; it is a cost-and-capability bet aimed at locking in enterprise users as China’s AI space gets crowded with fast-moving rivals. On Monday, the e-commerce and cloud giant unveiled Qwen3.5, pitching it as built for an “agentic AI era,” where models don’t just answer questions but complete multi-step work across apps. The timing is sharp as ByteDance has also rolled out an upgraded Doubao, while other Chinese labs and big tech groups line up their next flagship releases. Alibaba reframes AI economics Alibaba said Qwen3.5 is designed to execute complex tasks independently, positioning it as a practical tool for developers and enterprises rather than a pure research showcase. The company’s headline…