The recent rise of Artificial intelligence (AI) programs such as ChatGPT has created a frenzy around AI-related stocks.

C3.AI, a pure play AI stock, is up over 100% since late December.

But is this rally sustainable? After all, the public was already surrounded by AI without realizing it. Almost everything people use in daily life is affected by AI already: 

• advertising
• entertainment streaming services
• social media
• cars (collision detection and blind spot monitoring)
• fraud prevention
• screening job applicants
• email spam filters
• many other applications

C3.AI is a company that creates software to help other companies deploy AI projects. C3 software is being used in multiple ways, including managing inventories, monitoring for energy inefficiencies, and predicting system failures. [Of particular note is one new product from C3 called ex machina which allows users to program AI initiatives without using any coding at all but instead via a series of visual programming tools. CP]

AI stocks, and technology stocks as a whole, were a neglected market in 2022. The Nasdaq 100, an index heavy in technology stock, fell more than 30% in 2022. C3.AI fell over 65% in 2022, and is currently down almost 90% from its 2020 high (even after the 100% rally in 2023). All currency quotes that follow are in USD.

C3.AI recently peaked at $30.92 on February 6. It then reached a low of $20.31 on March 1 before rallying back to $29.98. It has since fallen and is back near the $20.33 low.

This puts the stock at a crucial level.

An analyst from SafeTradeBinaryOptions.com had this input: “Right now, the stock is in an uptrend, albeit a precarious one. The price has been making higher swing lows and higher swing highs throughout 2023. But if the price drops much below $20, that will no longer be the case. The price will have made a lower high on March 6 (compared to February 6) and if the price drops below the March 2 low, that is a lower low. These are signs of a downtrend starting — not an uptrend.”

This $20 region is important because if the area holds, this indicates the price is moving in a range, with the possibility of the price moving back up to the top of the range near $29. If that happens, there is still hope that the price will eventually break out of the range to upside, continuing its advance to $40, for example. 

However, if the price drops below the $20 region, the range is broken and the uptrend is in jeopardy. 

It’s important to watch C3.AI to see how investors are perceiving the future of AI, and what that may mean for the industry’s future. 

As of March 2023, C3 doesn’t have a lot of direct competition. The company is not yet even profitable. How the stock moves is based on whether investors believe the company can eventually generate profits — and in this case, its profits largely depend on whether AI becomes even more widespread than it already is. For the Silo, Kat Fleischman.