A new analyst note was the wind under the wings of GitLab (GTLB 3.80%) stock on Thursday. Shares of the software development and cybersecurity solutions provider ticked almost 4% higher on the day as a result. This rise was several orders of magnitude better than the S&P 500 index's sub-1% increase.

Waxing bullish about the new AI-loaded software

The person behind the fresh analysis was William Blair's Jason Ader. In his newest GitLab note, Ader reiterated his confident outperform (read: buy) recommendation on the company's shares.

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According to reports, the analyst's update was something of a reaction to GitLab's latest software package release. Ader wrote that the company held a virtual launch of its GitLab 18, a suite he said features more than 30 improvements to functionalities of earlier products.

The pundit went into some detail about GitLab 18, writing that a notable feature of the new software is its Duo Agent Platform. This allows the product's users to harness artificial intelligence (AI) agents across all aspects of the software development life cycle. These agents can assist with many tasks, including coding -- typically a time-consuming and laborious activity.

AI for the win

While analyst buy recommendations frequently inspire investors to either hold or purchase a stock, I suspect this recommendation on its own isn't what drove GitLab's surge on Thursday. Rather, it's Ader's considerable dive into the AI aspect of GitLab 18. Investors are still very hungry to buy into this white-hot and rapidly developing technology, and GitLab is clearly embracing it strongly.