Cloud Software Sector Faces AI Challenges and Opportunities
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: Mar 12 2026
0mins
Should l Buy CRM?
Source: Fool
- Market Overreaction: The massive sell-off in software stocks over the past few months, driven by perceived threats from generative AI, has led Harris | Oakmark to believe that the market is overvaluing many enterprise software companies, particularly by underestimating the impact of stock-based compensation, which has raised investor concerns about the industry's outlook.
- Reliability of Enterprise Software: Analyst Jeremy G. Thames argues that despite the threat posed by emerging custom software tools like Claude Code, businesses prefer established products from Salesforce and SAP due to their reliability, support services, and user communities, which create high switching costs and provide intangible benefits.
- Potential AI Advantages: Thames asserts that while AI may disrupt the software industry, incumbent software providers have a distinct advantage in data depth and quality, with Salesforce leveraging its Data Cloud to build its Agentforce service, thereby enhancing its market position.
- Emerging Investment Opportunities: As software stock prices decline, Harris | Oakmark highlights Salesforce and SAP's entrenched roles in customer operations, with SAP's cloud backlog growing by 25% and Salesforce's Agentforce sales increasing by 169% year-over-year, demonstrating strong adaptability and growth potential in the AI era.
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Analyst Views on CRM
Wall Street analysts forecast CRM stock price to rise
39 Analyst Rating
29 Buy
9 Hold
1 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 186.240
Low
223.00
Averages
326.40
High
405.00
Current: 186.240
Low
223.00
Averages
326.40
High
405.00
About CRM
Salesforce, Inc. is a customer relationship management (CRM) technology company. Its artificial intelligence (AI) powered Agentforce 360 Platform offers sales, service, marketing, commerce, collaboration, data management, integration, analytics, and information technology (IT) service solutions. It enables customers to build and deploy digital labor for employees and customers, leveraging autonomous AI agents across business functions. Its service offerings include Agentforce Sales, Agentforce Service, Agentforce 360 Platform, Slack and Others. The Agentforce Sales provides sales capabilities and tools built for organizations across prospecting, sales engagement, team collaboration, sales analytics and AI, sales programs, sales performance, partner management, and revenue and orders. The Agentforce Service provides field service solutions that enable companies to connect service agents, dispatchers and mobile employees through platform to schedule, dispatch and manage jobs.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
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- Technical Analysis Tool: Comparing the current share price to the 200-day moving average can provide valuable insights for investors, aiding them in making more informed investment decisions based on market trends.
- ETF Trading Mechanism: Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) trade like stocks, where investors are buying and selling 'units' that can be created or destroyed based on investor demand, impacting liquidity and market performance.
- Inflows and Outflows Monitoring: Weekly monitoring of changes in shares outstanding helps identify ETFs experiencing notable inflows (new units created) or outflows (old units destroyed), assessing their potential impact on underlying assets.
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- Big Players Hit Hard: Major companies like Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) saw declines exceeding 30% in Q1, while Workday plummeted nearly 40%, illustrating that even established firms are not immune to market pressures, leading to capital shifting towards energy and AI chip stocks.
- Impact of AI Technology: The emergence of advanced AI agents such as Anthropic's Claude Cowork and OpenClaw raises concerns about diminishing demand for traditional enterprise software, prompting software companies to invest heavily in AI infrastructure; however, tightening profit margins are causing investor skepticism regarding near-term returns.
- Diverging Analyst Opinions: Despite bearish market sentiment, Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities argues that the decline in software stocks is excessive, asserting that AI will drive increased spending in the enterprise software market, suggesting that the current downturn may present a buying opportunity.
See More
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- Corporate Motivation Issues: Ben Wiener from Cognizant highlights that AI does not change corporate incentives but amplifies existing cost-cutting strategies, resulting in a customer service experience that fails to improve and often frustrates customers.
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See More
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- Price Range Analysis: The XLK ETF's 52-week low is $86.225 per share, with a high of $152.995, while the last trade was at $133.67, indicating relative stability and investor confidence in the current market environment.
- Technical Analysis Tool: Comparing the current share price to the 200-day moving average can provide valuable insights for investors, aiding them in making more informed investment decisions based on market trends.
- ETF Trading Mechanism: Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) trade like stocks, where investors are buying and selling 'units' that can be created or destroyed based on investor demand, impacting liquidity and market performance.
- Inflows and Outflows Monitoring: Weekly monitoring of changes in shares outstanding helps identify ETFs experiencing notable inflows (new units created) or outflows (old units destroyed), assessing their potential impact on underlying assets.
See More
Software Stocks Plunge Amid Market Stability, Analysts See Opportunity
- Market Sentiment Decline: Despite overall market stability, software stocks faced a severe downturn in Q1 2026, with the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) dropping over 24%, marking the worst quarterly performance since the 2008 financial crisis and indicating a valuation reassessment across the industry.
- Big Players Hit Hard: Major companies like Salesforce (CRM) and ServiceNow (NOW) saw declines exceeding 30% in Q1, while Workday plummeted nearly 40%, illustrating that even established firms are not immune to market pressures, leading to capital shifting towards energy and AI chip stocks.
- Impact of AI Technology: The emergence of advanced AI agents such as Anthropic's Claude Cowork and OpenClaw raises concerns about diminishing demand for traditional enterprise software, prompting software companies to invest heavily in AI infrastructure; however, tightening profit margins are causing investor skepticism regarding near-term returns.
- Diverging Analyst Opinions: Despite bearish market sentiment, Dan Ives from Wedbush Securities argues that the decline in software stocks is excessive, asserting that AI will drive increased spending in the enterprise software market, suggesting that the current downturn may present a buying opportunity.
See More
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- ServiceNow Stock Performance: ServiceNow's shares have dropped 34% over the past year and 32% year-to-date, although analysts have raised earnings estimates three times in the last 60 days for 2026, indicating a bullish outlook for the company.
- Salesforce Valuation Analysis: Salesforce's stock has decreased by 12% over the last five years and 29.5% year-to-date, with a forward P/E of 14.1, which is considered a value indicator, and earnings are expected to rise by 4.6% in fiscal 2027.
- Palantir Stock Dynamics: Palantir has surged 528% in the last five years but has seen a 17.7% decline year-to-date in 2026, with a forward P/E of 104.9 indicating it is still perceived as overvalued, despite expected earnings growth of 74.7% in 2026.
- Adobe Price Trends: Adobe's shares have fallen 49% over the past five years and 31% year-to-date, currently trading at a forward P/E of 10.3, with earnings expected to rise by 12.3% in 2026, highlighting its attractiveness in the current market environment.
See More
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- Salesforce Options Volume: Salesforce Inc saw options trading volume of 80,242 contracts, equating to approximately 8 million shares, which represents 60.3% of its average daily trading volume over the past month, indicating strong market interest in its future performance.
- High-Frequency Trading Insight: Within Salesforce, the $180 strike put option has seen 34,250 contracts traded today, representing about 3.4 million shares, reflecting investor expectations of potential price declines that could impact stock volatility.
- Chevron Options Activity: Chevron Corporation's options trading volume reached 75,380 contracts, approximately 7.5 million shares, accounting for 49.6% of its average daily trading volume over the past month, showcasing active trading interest in its stock.
- Put Option Trading: For Chevron, the $195 strike put option has traded 5,496 contracts today, representing around 549,600 shares, indicating a cautious sentiment among investors regarding its future performance, which may influence its stock price trajectory.
See More
Salesforce's Slackbot Event Highlights Significant Productivity Boost
- Productivity Boost: At the Slackbot event, Salesforce showcased a significant productivity boost from AI, with Slackbot capable of handling meeting notes, operating directly on users' desktops, and leveraging deep research and memory capabilities to enhance work efficiency.
- Structural Competitive Advantage: BTIG analysts noted that Slackbot provides Salesforce with a structural competitive advantage, redefining every app within its customer relationship management platform, with Slack emerging as the new engagement layer that enhances user experience.
- Integrated Functional Innovations: Slackbot integrates enterprise search and utilizes Model Context Protocol to connect with third-party agents like Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's ChatGPT, streamlining task management and customer record updates, thereby improving operational efficiency.
- Optimistic Market Outlook: BTIG anticipates that with the rollout of Slackbot and upcoming feature releases, Salesforce's organic revenue growth is expected to reaccelerate, leading to an optimistic outlook for its future performance, with a price target set at $255.
See More
AI Customer Service Faces Consumer Discontent
- Poor User Experience: According to the Qualtrics 2026 Customer Experience Trends Report, nearly one in five consumers reported no benefits from using AI for customer service, a failure rate almost four times higher than general AI use, indicating significant barriers in AI's application in customer service.
- Corporate Motivation Issues: Ben Wiener from Cognizant highlights that AI does not change corporate incentives but amplifies existing cost-cutting strategies, resulting in a customer service experience that fails to improve and often frustrates customers.
- Limitations of Automation: Research shows many conversations with AI still escalate to human agents, and when AI cannot resolve issues or clearly explain decisions, customers often perceive it as an additional barrier rather than a solution.
- Market Outlook: Zendesk CEO Tom Eggemeier predicts that within three years, 50% of digital customer service interactions will be handled by AI, rising to 80% within five years, indicating ongoing investment and application of AI in customer service by businesses.
See More
