Sea's AI Push With OpenAI Could Deepen Shopee's Competitive Edge Now

Sea’s OpenAI Deal Targets E-Commerce Innovation

The partnership is designed to bring OpenAI technology into markets where Shopee already operates at large scale. Shopee generated $37.3 billion of gross merchandise value in the first quarter of 2026, up 30.2% year over year, on 4 billion gross orders.

MercadoLibre MELI operates a major online commerce and fintech ecosystem in Latin America. Alibaba BABA owns Lazada, a leading e-commerce platform across six Southeast Asian markets. AI-enabled discovery and seller tools could become another way for Shopee to differentiate.

SE Could Extend AI Across Shopee Users and Sellers

The Shopee App is now available in ChatGPT across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam and Brazil. Users can discover Shopee products through conversational prompts before continuing the shopping journey on Shopee.

Sea also plans to broaden OpenAI access through ShopeeVIP and introduce ChatGPT for Business to eligible sellers. That expands the potential use cases from product discovery to listing creation, marketing content, customer service workflows and business automation.

Sea’s AI Center Adds Infrastructure Behind the Push

Sea established an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence in Singapore in April with support from Digital Industry Singapore. The center is focused on foundational AI, scalable deployment and AI-native talent and operating models.

That infrastructure complements the OpenAI partnership. Sea said its Compass Max v3.5 foundation model and variants are already powering AI features across Shopee, indicating that the company is building both internal capabilities and external partnerships around the technology.

SE’s AI Opportunity Comes With Higher Spending

Sea’s AI ambitions sit alongside a broader investment agenda. The AI center is expected to support research, engineering and product development, while Shopee is separately investing in delivery, fulfillment, the ShopeeVIP membership program and user acquisition.

Those investments have a near-term earnings cost. Shopee adjusted EBITDA declined to $223.2 million in the first quarter from $264.4 million a year earlier, even as marketplace monetization strengthened.

Sea Must Turn AI Investment Into Better Economics

The important test is whether AI improves engagement, monetization or operating efficiency. Sea said AI-powered search, recommendations and seller content tools supported a 14% year-over-year improvement in purchase conversion in the first quarter.

There are already efficiency signals. About 80% of customer queries are handled by Sea’s AI chatbot, helping reduce customer-service cost per contact by around 30% year over year. Sustaining those gains while protecting Shopee profitability would strengthen the economic case for further AI deployment.

SE’s Ratings Keep the AI Story in Perspective

The OpenAI partnership adds a credible technology catalyst, but it does not remove near-term execution risk. Sea must continue converting higher Shopee activity and AI adoption into better unit economics while funding logistics, membership and user-acquisition initiatives.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Sea also has a Growth Score of A, Momentum Score of B, Value Score of C and VGM Score of B. The favorable Growth and Momentum Scores point to attractive underlying characteristics, but the Style Scores complement rather than override the Zacks Rank, keeping the near-term investment view measured.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double"

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research