Salesforce (CRM) stock has plummeted approximately 30% year-to-date in 2026, driven by widespread investor fears that artificial intelligence (AI) will undermine the traditional Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model. CEO Marc Benioff is actively countering this narrative, asserting that the AI opportunity for Salesforce has "never been greater." The company is responding with its own AI initiatives, including the live Agentforce platform and the upcoming launch of a new AI platform code-named Agent Albert by year-end.
Agentforce, launched in late 2024, is currently used by 23,000 of Salesforce's 150,000 customers. Early results show significant efficiency gains: at Pearson, it increased the rate of customer queries resolved without human help by 40%, and PenFed Credit Union cut IT tickets by 40%. However, the platform faces challenges with vague or complex requests, highlighting that human intervention is still necessary for intricate problems.
To adapt, Salesforce has shifted its pricing from a pure per-seat license to a hybrid model, where customers pay per action for Agentforce usage. A new metric, Agentic Work Units (AWUs), tracked 2.4 billion units processed in the latest quarter, a 57% increase from the previous quarter. Benioff emphasizes that Salesforce's decades of investment in data security and compliance are a durable moat, difficult for competitors to replicate quickly. The company has invested over $300 million in AI firm Anthropic since 2023.
Similarly, Adobe (ADBE) is confronting the same market pressures, with its stock also down roughly 30% year-to-date despite a recent 1.8% climb to $248.99 on the launch of its CX Enterprise AI agent platform. The platform, aimed at large enterprises, is designed to automate tasks and coordinate multiple AI agents to improve customer experience and sales workflows.
Adobe announced expanded AI partnerships with major tech players including Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI. Analyst sentiment remains mixed; RBC Capital maintains an Outperform rating but cut its price target from $400 to $350, while BTIG initiated coverage with a Neutral rating, citing uncertainty about AI's long-term impact on creative software markets.
The broader software sector, as tracked by the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV), is down 20% over the same period, indicating a sector-wide reevaluation. The core debate centers on whether AI agents will reduce the need for human-operated software seats or create new, value-added services that legacy platforms like Salesforce and Adobe are positioned to provide.
