Jack Ma re-emerged on the public stage on March 3 in a deliberate display of corporate unity and strategic direction. He visited Yungu School in Hangzhou accompanied by Alibaba and Ant Group’s core management — including Joseph Tsai (Cai Chongxin), CEO Wu Yongming, e‑commerce chief Jiang Fan, and Ant’s chairman Jing Xiandong and CEO Han Xinyi — a rare face‑to‑face gathering that underlines how seriously the group now treats artificial intelligence.
Ma told teachers that the AI era has arrived faster than most expected and will reshape work, schooling and social life. He argued that while many adults are unprepared, children stand to gain the most if education changes: rote learning can be replaced by time for creativity, sport and the arts, and teachers should become "soul engineers" nurturing curiosity, empathy and judgement — human attributes he said AI cannot replicate.
Senior executives used the meeting to set out complementary views on what that human edge will entail. Joseph Tsai stressed the importance of critical thinking and "asking the right questions." Wu Yongming listed curiosity, empathy and physical aptitude as core human traits likely to remain distinct from machine labour. Jing Xian‑dong urged that AI be deployed to absorb repetitive tasks while cautioning against over‑reliance and underscoring the need for independent thought.
The appearance also doubled as a progress report on Alibaba’s technology stack. The company has been accelerating in large models and infrastructure: its next‑generation Qwen3.5‑Plus model has improved on several benchmarks and the Tongyi Qianwen app is attracting more users. Alibaba says its API pricing is a fraction of some peers, and it is knitting together in‑house capabilities from chips (T‑Head/Pingtouge’s Zhenwu 810E) to cloud (Alibaba Cloud) and models (Tongyi lab), creating a full‑stack AI engine that the article compares to Google’s integrated approach.
That technological push matters for several reasons. First, having chips, cloud and models under one roof shortens the path from research to product and gives Alibaba greater control over costs and deployment at scale. Second, the emphasis on schools signals an attempt to shape the human capital pipeline and social acceptance of AI in China from an early age. Third, Ma’s public return alongside senior executives signals internal cohesion and senior‑level commitment after years in which China’s tech giants navigated heavy regulatory scrutiny and leadership changes.
For international observers and markets, Alibaba’s message is double‑edged. The company projects confidence in its technical competitiveness and cost position, yet it is also acknowledging the disruptive consequences of rapid AI adoption — job loss in some fields, the need for educational reform, and a possible shift in the kinds of human labour that remain valued. The rare public assembly around Ma underscores both a commercial pivot and a reputational recalibration: Alibaba is selling not only products but a social narrative about how China should adapt to AI.
The meeting does not resolve competitive or regulatory challenges. China’s AI landscape is crowded and politically sensitive; firms such as Baidu, Tencent and ByteDance are also racing to industrialize models and capture users. Alibaba’s integrated stack gives it operational advantages, but deployment at scale will hinge on talent, regulatory approvals, international partnerships and the company’s ability to translate engineering gains into profitable services.
Still, the Hangzhou visit marks a clear turning point in Alibaba’s public posture. By linking a technical roadmap to an educational argument and fronting the message with Jack Ma and top executives, the company is making a strategic bet: that winning the next phase of AI requires not just better models and cheaper compute, but a reorientation of social institutions — especially schools — to cultivate the human capacities machines cannot easily replicate.