We’ve reached the next milestone in AI evolution — Agentic AI.
Unlike traditional models that wait for instructions, agentic systems act on objectives.
They can reason, plan steps, gather information, and execute — all without constant human input.
Alibaba’s AgentFold and Tongyi DeepResearch embody this paradigm shift.
These systems don’t just generate answers; they conduct projects.
⚙️ What AgentFold Does
AgentFold is a multi-modal planning agent built on Alibaba Cloud’s Tongyi LLM foundation.
Key features:
- Recursive Task Decomposition: Breaks a goal into micro-tasks and executes sequentially.
- Self-Reflection Loop: Evaluates its own outputs and improves without re-prompting.
- API Integration: Connects to Alibaba Cloud, Feishu, DingTalk, and third-party tools.
- Memory Persistence: Retains context for weeks, not minutes.
Use case: automating an entire supply-chain report — from data pull to summary to PowerPoint generation — autonomously.
🔍 Tongyi DeepResearch — The Cognitive Scholar
DeepResearch is a search and reasoning model trained to perform independent research cycles:
- Formulate a hypothesis.
- Crawl academic and industry sources.
- Cross-verify claims.
- Produce structured reports with citations.
Essentially, it’s an AI research assistant with its own scientific method.
Alibaba has already deployed it internally for patent analysis and competitive intelligence.
🌍 Why Agentic AI Matters
1️⃣ Productivity Revolution — Instead of humans prompting AI, AI becomes a colleague that reports results.
2️⃣ Economic Shift — “Digital employees” will handle tasks 24/7 at negligible marginal cost.
3️⃣ Research Acceleration — Weeks of analysis condensed into hours.
4️⃣ Inter-Agent Collaboration — Multiple agents coordinate like departments in a company.
💼 Real-World Applications
| Industry | Agentic Use Case | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| E-Commerce | Dynamic pricing & auto campaign creation | +35 % conversion rate |
| Healthcare | Medical literature synthesis for diagnostic support | Faster R&D |
| Finance | Autonomous risk analysis | Reduced compliance cost |
| Education | Personalized curriculum planning | Adaptive learning at scale |
| Research | Self-driven paper generation & peer review | Higher throughput |
🧩 The Tech Stack Behind Agentic AI
- Foundation LLMs: Tongyi Qianwen 2.0 (Chinese GPT-4 equivalent).
- Memory Graphs: Stores state and context through knowledge bases.
- Action Executors: Python-based tool plugins handling web requests and database calls.
- Ethics Layer: Hard-coded guardrails for sensitive domains (medical, finance).
This combination lets AgentFold not only think but do.
🧠 Comparison with Western Counterparts
| Capability | AgentFold / DeepResearch | OpenAI / Anthropic | Google Gemini Agents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal Autonomy | ✅ High | 🟡 Medium | 🟢 Medium |
| Memory Persistence | ✅ Long-term | 🟡 Session-only | 🟢 Limited |
| Multi-Agent Collab | ✅ Native | 🟡 Experimental | 🟡 Experimental |
| API Ecosystem | Alibaba Cloud + DingTalk | OpenAI Plugins | Vertex AI |
| Language Support | CN + EN | EN-centric | Global EN |
Alibaba’s advantage lies in workflow integration and autonomy rather than pure text generation.
⚖️ Ethical and Social Considerations
Autonomous agents raise fresh questions:
- Accountability: Who is responsible if an agent acts improperly?
- Transparency: Should agents disclose their autonomy level to users?
- Bias Propagation: Self-training loops can amplify errors.
Alibaba states that each agent includes “audit hooks” for human oversight and compliance.
🌐 Agentic AI in the Global Landscape
Expect Agentic AI to become the next competitive arena among tech giants:
- Microsoft is testing Copilot Agents for end-to-end Excel automation.
- OpenAI develops Autonomous GPTs (“AutoGPT” successors).
- Baidu and Huawei are building similar multi-agent platforms.
By 2027, we could see “AI companies” where most employees are digital agents coordinating with humans.
🔮 Future Outlook
- Agent Coordination Frameworks — meta-systems managing hundreds of agents.
- Economic Restructuring — Agent taxation and digital labor laws.
- Education Shift — teaching students to manage agents, not replace them.
- Agentic Ethics Boards — corporate governance for AI teams.
This is not science fiction — pilot projects are already running within Alibaba Cloud and government agencies across Asia.