- Can Enterprise AI Momentum Further Support Appian's Cloud Growth?
May 11, 2026
Appian Corporation APPN is seeing growing benefits from rising enterprise interest in artificial intelligence (“AI”) adoption, particularly in process automation and workflow management. Companies are increasingly shifting AI spending toward practical and large-scale use cases instead of experimental projects. This trend may continue supporting Appian’s cloud business as enterprises look for platforms that can combine AI capabilities with reliability, governance and operational efficiency.
The company’s first-quarter cloud subscription revenues increased 25% year over year to $124.5 million. The growth appears closely tied to higher enterprise demand for AI-enabled automation tools and larger strategic deployments. Management indicated that the company’s AI-related pipeline remains above internal expectations heading into the rest of 2026.
A key differentiator for Appian is its focus on integrating AI into regulated and mission-critical workflows. Many enterprises continue to face challenges around AI accuracy, compliance and operational risk. Appian’s process-driven framework aims to address these concerns by combining automation tools with AI capabilities. This positioning may help the company benefit as enterprises move toward broader production-level AI deployments.
DocCenter is emerging as an important contributor to cloud momentum. The platform uses AI to process and extract information from documents with more than 95% accuracy. Adoption increased across industries during the quarter, with customers using the platform to automate invoice processing, document verification and operational workflows. Management stated that customers processed more document pages in the first quarter than in all of 2025 combined, reflecting increasing deployment activity.
Large enterprise deals also suggest that modernization demand remains healthy. Customers across insurance, healthcare, energy and automotive industries expanded Appian deployments to reduce costs and consolidate legacy systems.
Going forward, Appian expects cloud subscription revenues between $515 million and $521 million for full-year 2026, representing year-over-year growth of 18% at the midpoint of the range. Continued enterprise AI adoption, expanding modernization projects and larger strategic contracts may remain important drivers for the company’s cloud growth trajectory.
APPN’s Share Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Appian’s shares have declined 52% in the trailing six months, underperforming the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s rise of 16.4% and the Zacks Internet - Software industry’s decline of 13.1%.
The stock has underperformed Docusign DOCU and Salesforce, Inc.’s CRM 30.9% and 26.1% decline, respectively, during the same time period.
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APPN Stock PerformanceZacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Appian’s shares are currently trading at a discount, with a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 1.93, as shown in the chart below. Also, Appian appears cheaper than Docusign and Salesforce 2.61 and 3.15, respectively.
APPN ValuationZacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Appian’s 2026 earnings estimate has remained unchanged at 89 cents per share over the past 30 days. The estimated figure for 2026 earnings implies growth of 45.9% year over year on projected revenue growth of 11.3%.Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Conversely, Docusign and Salesforce’s earnings in fiscal 2027 are likely to witness year-over-year increases of 15.4% and 5%, respectively.
Appian currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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- Ciridae Raises $20 Million Led by Accel to Bring AI Transformation to Real Economy Businesses
May 11, 2026
SAN FRANCISCO, May 11, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ciridae, the AI transformation firm building operating systems for real economy businesses, today announced it has raised $20 million in seed funding led by Accel, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sunflower Capital, and Backcountry Ventures. Founded by CEO Jack Soslow, former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and data scientist at Meta, and CTO Jack Weissenberger, former engineering team leader at Salesforce and Head of ML at Teneyx, Ciridae will use the new capital to expand its engineering team and further its mission of bringing AI transformation to real economy businesses.
Global AI spending is projected to hit $2.5 trillion in 2026, yet fewer than 5% of pilots ever reach production. The gap is sharpest outside the Fortune 500, where mid-market companies like restoration firms, logistics providers, and industrial services run on tribal knowledge, legacy ERPs, and manual processes with no AI team and no realistic path to building one.
Ciridae is building the AI operating system for these businesses. The company embeds with each customer, turns their core workflows into AI-native software, and runs it in production as mission-critical infrastructure. Ciridae transforms core processes as purpose-built AI software, implementing in as little as two weeks vs. the typical 18 months. The team is seeing early success supporting customers including PE funds with more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management.
"We built Ciridae to solve one of the quieter failures of the AI boom: the companies that stand to benefit most from AI have no way of actually adopting it," said Jack Soslow, CEO and Co-Founder of Ciridae. "We believe the biggest AI opportunity is not adding another layer of enterprise software, but building the operating infrastructure for the businesses the industry has largely passed by."
Ciridae's initial focus is private equity-backed companies, from home services and industrial distribution to healthcare and construction, where the drive to improve operations is structural rather than aspirational. The company recently debuted its highly cited Ciridae AI Index, which evaluates PE firms and companies based on their AI transformation, assessing the risk and opportunity. The early results are a master class in how to build an early stage firm to scale at speed. Ciridae hired its first employee in February 2025 and has reached high seven figures in run-rate revenue within six months of selling, remaining cash flow positive throughout.
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"The old playbook of financial engineering without operational transformation is breaking. AI is the new lever," said Christine Esserman, Partner at Accel. "Ciridae combines world-class AI talent with operators who can actually implement change, delivering production systems in days. That’s why they’re already becoming the partner of choice for some of the most sophisticated companies."
Ciridae is already seeing strong demand from firms looking to move beyond experimentation and into deployment, particularly in sectors where margins depend on workforce productivity and execution at scale. Unlike horizontal AI tools, Ciridae focuses on deeply integrated systems that reflect how these businesses actually operate, with significant results.
"Ciridae challenged us to elevate our thinking. They built a transformative AI operating system that powers and connects every core part of our business," said Bryan Knodel, CFO of Knight Commercial.
ABOUT CIRADAE
Ciridae is an AI transformation firm building operating systems for real-economy businesses. Backed by Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Sunflower Capital, and Backcountry Ventures, the company was founded by CEO Jack Soslow, a former partner at Andreessen Horowitz and data scientist at Meta, and CTO Jack Weissenberger, a former engineering leader at Salesforce and Head of ML at Teneyx.
Ciridae partners with mid-market companies in sectors such as restoration, logistics, and industrial services businesses, embedding directly with customers to transform core operations into AI-native software and deploy mission-critical systems in as little as two weeks. Ciridae is already supporting customers and partners including private equity funds representing more than $1.3 trillion in assets under management.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260511689364/en/
Contacts
Press Contact:
Jill Harding
Command for Ciridae
jill@heycommand.com
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- Salesforce Trades at a Discounted Valuation: Time to Buy the Stock?
May 11, 2026
Salesforce, Inc. CRM stock is trading at valuation levels that now look unusually low for a company with its market leadership and long-term growth potential. CRM stock currently trades at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 13.41, which is significantly lower than the Zacks Internet – Software industry average of 26.77.
Salesforce has a lower P/E multiple than major enterprise software makers, including Microsoft Corporation MSFT, ServiceNow, Inc. NOW and SAP SE SAP. At present, Microsoft, ServiceNow and SAP trade at P/E multiples of 21.84, 20.50 and 19.67, respectively. This valuation gap suggests that investors have turned significantly cautious about Salesforce despite the company continuing to hold a strong competitive position.
Salesforce Forward 12-Month P/E RatioZacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The lower valuation is largely tied to the steep decline in Salesforce shares this year. CRM stock has fallen 31.3% year to date (YTD), making it one of the weakest-performing names in the software industry. However, the weakness is part of a much broader correction across enterprise software stocks rather than a sign of company-specific trouble.
Several large software players, including Microsoft, SAP and ServiceNow, have also experienced sizable declines this year. YTD, shares of Microsoft, SAP and ServiceNow have fallen 14.1%, 28.5% and 40.5%, respectively. Investors are becoming more selective as concerns rise over slowing enterprise spending, economic uncertainty and the long-term impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on traditional software business models.
Salesforce YTD Price Return PerformanceZacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
One of the biggest concerns is the rise of agentic AI systems that can independently perform complex workplace tasks. This has created fears that software companies relying heavily on user-based subscriptions could eventually face slower growth if businesses require fewer employees or software seats. If fewer human users are needed, companies may cut back on subscription seats (or per-seat pricing), which have long been the backbone of software revenue models.
Geopolitical tensions and inflation concerns are creating a cautious spending environment for enterprises. Companies are prioritizing efficiency and delaying some large technology investments, which could pressure software demand in the near term.
Despite all these headwinds, writing off Salesforce entirely would be short-sighted. The stock’s decline reflects fear, but not necessarily a broken business.
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AI and Platform Expansion Support CRM’s Long-Term Growth
Salesforce remains the global leader in customer relationship management, a position it has consistently held, according to Gartner. However, the company is no longer just a CRM provider. Rather, it is evolving into a full-scale enterprise platform.
Salesforce is building a broader enterprise ecosystem centered on AI, data and collaboration. Acquisitions like Slack and Informatica highlight this ambition, while smaller AI-focused deals such as Doti AI and Spindle AI show management’s urgency in staying ahead of the curve.
AI is now central to Salesforce’s growth story. Since the 2023 rollout of Einstein GPT, Salesforce has been embedding generative AI across its offerings to help companies automate processes, improve decision-making and strengthen customer relationships.
Its latest innovation, Agentforce, is gaining momentum. Combined with Data Cloud, these AI-driven offerings brought in $2.9 billion in recurring revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, representing more than 200% year-over-year increase. Agentforce alone generated $800 million in recurring revenues, up 169% year over year. More than 60% of Agentforce deals came from existing clients, showing Salesforce’s success in cross-selling AI features to its user base.
This shows Salesforce is successfully monetizing its installed base, a key strength that many competitors struggle to replicate. Instead of chasing new clients aggressively, it is deepening relationships with current ones, which is often more profitable and sustainable.
Latest Results Indicate Reviving Sales Growth for Salesforce
One of the biggest concerns around Salesforce in recent quarters has been slowing growth. After years of strong double-digit expansion, revenue growth had slipped into the high single digits, raising questions about maturity and saturation.
However, the latest results suggest a turnaround may already be underway. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, revenues grew 12% year over year, a meaningful improvement that indicates demand is stabilizing.
Management is cautiously optimistic. It expects 12-13% growth in the first quarter and 10-11% for fiscal 2027. While these numbers are not explosive, they are healthy for a company of Salesforce’s size and signal that growth is not stalling. Analyst estimates are also pointing to similar low-double-digit growth for the first quarter and fiscal 2027.Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Conclusion: Buy CRM Stock at Current Valuations
Salesforce is facing the same macroeconomic and AI-related concerns impacting the broader software sector, but the company’s core business remains strong. Its leadership in CRM, expanding AI portfolio and growing recurring revenue streams provide a solid foundation for long-term growth.
Given the sharp decline in the stock and its discounted valuation compared with peers, the market appears to be pricing in too much pessimism. For long-term investors, Salesforce stock looks attractive at current levels, making CRM an ideal investment option for now.
Salesforce carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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- Enterprise AI Is Stalling: 46% of Initiatives Fall Short Despite Rising Investment
May 11, 2026
New study of 800 organizations by Coastal & Oxford Economics finds the biggest barrier to AI success is not technology but how it’s operated
AI Investment Is Rising. Results Are Lagging.84% of leaders say AI is making their organization more competitive, and 74% are increasing AI investment — yet 46% still say their initiatives are falling short of expectations.·GlobeNewswire Inc.
Why AI Initiatives Stall After Launch.Despite growing investment in AI, organizations continue to struggle with turning initiatives into measurable business value. Coastal’s research found that data access, adoption, and operational execution remain the biggest barriers to success.·GlobeNewswire Inc.
Palm Coast, FL, May 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Despite a surge in enterprise AI investment, nearly half of organizations say their initiatives are falling short, according to a new report released today by Coastal, a leading Salesforce and Snowflake consultancy.
Based on a survey of 800 U.S. business and technology leaders conducted in partnership with Oxford Economics, Coastal’s 2026 AI Operations Report reveals a growing disconnect between AI investment and real-world outcomes. While 74% of organizations are increasing AI investment, 46% report that their initiatives have not met expectations, and only a small minority say AI is delivering measurable business value.
“Enterprise AI has reached a turning point,” said Eric Berridge, CEO of Coastal. “Over the past two years, the focus has been on proving that AI can work. Now the challenge is whether organizations can actually operate it at scale. Most teams have learned how to launch AI, but far fewer have built the capacity to run it. That’s where we’re seeing programs stall – in the gap between investment and impact, where data, adoption, ownership, and strategy all have to come together.”
The findings point to a consistent pattern across industries: organizations believe AI makes them more competitive and are expanding budgets, but lack the operational foundation to run AI for impact. As AI spreads across more use cases, the work required to keep it performing – managing data, monitoring cost and outputs, driving adoption, and more – quickly outpaces teams, creating strain that limits performance and makes it difficult to translate AI investment into sustained business impact.
Key findings from the report:
AI investment is accelerating, but results are lagging
While 84% of leaders say AI is making their organization more competitive, nearly half report that outcomes have fallen short of expectations, underscoring a gap between investment and impact.
Data challenges persist well beyond launch
70% of organizations report data access or quality issues during AI setup, and 73% encounter the same problems while running AI in production.
Employees are ready for AI, but AI isn’t ready for them
While 77% of organizations say employees are eager to use AI, 73% still struggle with adoption due to lack of trust, poor workflow fit, or unclear outputs.
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AI is only as strategic as the problem it’s solving
Just 26% of organizations begin AI initiatives with a clearly defined business problem.
Ownership gaps are limiting scale
Only one in six organizations has a dedicated AI or transformation team.
The report concludes that enterprise AI is entering a new phase; one where success depends less on launching new capabilities and more on building the operational foundation to sustain them.
“AI doesn’t behave like a system you deploy and move on from, and most teams haven’t planned for that,” Berridge added. “The organizations getting results are the ones treating AI as an ongoing operating function – with clear ownership, defined roadmaps, and continuous management built in from the start.”
Across the research, the organizations seeing results are not distinguished by the technology they use, but by how they operate it. They treat data as a continuous requirement; design AI for how people actually work; define the problem before selecting the solution; and assign clear ownership for performance in production.
The AI Operations Report 2026 was developed by Coastal in partnership with Oxford Economics, based on a survey of 800 U.S. business and technology leaders across industries. All respondents have at least one AI initiative actively in production, defined as organizational deployments designed to drive business outcomes. The findings reflect enterprise-level AI programs across a range of industries, functions, and operating environments, and are intended to capture the realities of running AI in production at scale.
The full AI Operations Report 2026 is available for download here.
About Coastal
Coastal® is a top-rated Salesforce and Snowflake consultancy helping organizations turn data and AI investments into measurable, lasting business impact. Trusted by more than 1,700 customers across industries, Coastal delivers the strategic clarity, technical depth, and hands-on execution that complex, multi-cloud initiatives demand – and the accountability to make sure results stick long after go-live.
Named a Leader by independent analyst firm ISG for five consecutive years – out of more than 3,000 Salesforce partners worldwide – and carrying a 5/5 customer satisfaction rating across 500+ Salesforce AppExchange reviews, Coastal is widely recognized as one of the most trusted names in the Salesforce ecosystem. The firm's approach combines enterprise-grade capability with the speed and flexibility that transforming organizations need, helping clients prioritize what matters most, build it right, and keep it generating value as their business evolves.
Now part of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Coastal customers can benefit from the global scale, resources, and IT services of a world-class firm. Learn more at coastal.us.
Attachments
AI Investment Is Rising. Results Are Lagging. Why AI Initiatives Stall After Launch.
CONTACT: Eddie Tabakman Coastal +1-604-306-0875 news@coastalcloud.us
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- SoftServe Selects Optimizely as Exclusive DXP Partner
May 11, 2026
Global digital consulting leader relaunches its own website using the Optimizely platform in just 60 days
NEW YORK, May 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Optimizely, the leading digital experience platform (DXP) provider, today announced a strategic partnership with SoftServe, a premier global digital consulting and engineering firm. As part of the partnership, Softserve launched a new website on Optimizely CMS, replacing their previous platform. The successful launch solidified Softserve's decision to invest in building a joint go-to-market strategy to help other enterprises deliver AI-powered digital experiences at scale.SoftServe launched their global brand and website in record time on Optimizely CMS (SaaS).
The partnership positions Optimizely as one of SoftServe's four core strategic platforms alongside SAP, Salesforce, and ServiceNow.
SoftServe's decision reflects a broader shift in how enterprises approach digital experience – moving away from fragmented systems and static websites toward more connected, data-driven platforms that enable personalization, experimentation, and measurable marketing performance.
SoftServe rebuilt and relaunched its global website on Optimizely's CMS (SaaS) in just 60 days, transitioning from a static, content-heavy experience to a more dynamic platform designed to deliver personalized user journeys, accelerate content production, and improve visibility into how digital engagement drives pipeline and revenue. The new approach is expected to accelerate campaign launch timelines by up to 30-40% while improving conversion and engagement across key buyer journeys.
"What makes this partnership different is that SoftServe isn't just recommending Optimizely to clients, they're running their own business on it," said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. "Their team knows the pain of a broken content supply chain firsthand, and they chose Optimizely as their DXP and marketing AI engine to fix it. That's the strongest validation a partner can give you."
SoftServe is also establishing a dedicated Optimizely delivery practice and developing proprietary solutions built on Optimizely One, including Optimizely Opal (its agent platform) capabilities. Together, the companies will focus on helping CMOs and digital leaders execute more personalized, scalable digital strategies through a unified platform approach.
The new SoftServe experience is designed to function as a modern marketing engine, enabling real-time personalization, faster content deployment, and reduced reliance on development resources. By connecting content, customer data, and experimentation in a single platform, SoftServe gains greater visibility into what drives engagement, conversion, and pipeline – a longstanding challenge with its previous digital experience.
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"Speed, flexibility, and simplicity are business imperatives, both for us and for our clients," said Arturo Pena, CMO of SoftServe. "We can't recommend rigid platforms that won't evolve as fast as the businesses running on them. Optimizely gave us a foundation to rebuild our global digital experience in 60 days, with measurable ROI from day one. That's exactly the kind of outcome we want to deliver for every client."
The partnership underscores a broader shift among enterprises toward more integrated, flexible platforms that enable faster execution, stronger personalization, and more accountable marketing performance.
To learn more about how Optimizely and SoftServe are partnering to deliver AI-powered digital experiences, visit: https://www.optimizely.com/partners/softserve-systems/. To learn more about Optimizely Opal, visit: https://www.optimizely.com/ai/
About Optimizely Optimizely is on a mission to make the lives of marketers better with Optimizely One, powered by Optimizely Opal, the world's first AI orchestration platform for marketing and digital teams. Optimizely One combines industry-leading solutions across content management, content marketing, experimentation, commerce, personalization, and analytics—powering the entire marketing lifecycle through a single agentic workflow designed to support and scale work across marketers' most critical tasks. With the flexibility of a fully composable platform, Optimizely is proudly helping global brands like Salesforce, Zoom, New Era and Mazda deliver experiences of the highest quality. Learn more at optimizely.com.
Optimizely and Optimizely One are the trademarks of Optimizely North America Inc., and are registered (or registrations are pending) in the US, EU, UK and other countries. All third-party trademarks cited are the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference purposes.
About SoftServe SoftServe is digital engineering and technology services company specializing in AI, data, and cloud solutions. We expand the horizon of new technologies to solve today's complex business challenges and achieve meaningful outcomes for our clients. Our boundless curiosity drives us to explore and reimagine the art of the possible. Clients confidently rely on SoftServe to architect and execute mature and innovative capabilities, such as digital engineering, data and analytics, cloud, and AI/ML.
Our global reputation is gained from more than 30 years of experience delivering superior digital solutions at exceptional speed by top-tier engineering talent to enterprise industries, including high tech, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, retail, energy, and manufacturing. Visit our website, blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, and X (Twitter) pages for more information.Optimizely (PRNewsfoto/Optimizely)Cision
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- The next test of leadership is how well you manage your AI agents
May 11, 2026
In today’s CEO Daily: Digging into the questions about AI agents that every leader has to figure out. The big leadership story: GameStop’s eBay bid echoes one of the worst business deals of all time. The markets: Mixed globally as an Iran peace plan stalls. Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. Who’s your agent? That’s not a question that most of us who work outside the realm of entertainment are used to hearing. But it’s a question that author and MIT fellow Michael Schrage posed to a group of chief financial officers last week during a dinner that Fortune cohosted with Deloitte and Salesforce in Boston. Schrage was talking, of course, about AI agents, those software programs created to autonomously take action on your behalf and interact with other humans or programs.
The answer from our attendees was mixed: some CFOs had personal AI agents that they deploy to help manage workflow or prepare for, say, quarterly calls. Others are more focused on overseeing how agents are created and deployed through their organizations. And some were holding back to figure out the right guard rails and directives to put in place before unleashing too many of autonomous ‘workers’ throughout their corporations.
It was a timely and thought-provoking conversation for me because it touched on issues that I think every leader has to figure out right now:
The role of the CFO: They’re sometimes cast as the Debbie Downer of the C-suite: the keeper of the coin, Dr. No, the balancer of budgets, controller of costs, and reality check on corporate ambitions. But Deloitte research reinforces that the CFO is actually the enabler and core driver of innovation and the one “anchoring AI initiatives to measurable business outcomes,” as noted in its Tech Trends 2026 report. They have to measure the risk-to-return ratio on AI investments and figure out new ways of valuing the agentic workforce.
The role of the agent: Schrage talked about functional agents that are deployed across a team and personal agents that act on behalf of the individual. The latter may be designed to keep an eye on the former, and the bespoke nature of such agents raises fascinating ethical and legal questions about what happens to them when the human that spawned them moves on to another organization. It’s not a theoretical exercise. I have a digital twin. While it’s, ahem, somewhat simplistic and sycophantic in its current form, it could theoretically be deployed to one day write and speak on my behalf long after I’m gone. So who owns the IP on your digital self?
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Corporate norms: If, as Schrage suggests, tomorrow’s leaders could include cyborgs with the intelligence, skills, judgement and authority of their human keepers, how should the work flow, assessment of employees, and corporate design be reimagined to accommodate this? Should super users be allowed to create as many agents as they like? How are costs and compensation calculated? Schrage predicts that “CEOs will be judged as much for their agents as for their hires,” as will other C-suite leaders. Their augmented ability to manage the augmented ability of others will make for very different relationships with coworkers, customers, and the communities they serve.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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- Why Salesforce (CRM) Is Building an Audit Trail for Enterprise AI Agents
May 10, 2026
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the best data governance stocks to buy for AI compliance.
The latest relevant development came on April 29, 2026, when Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) launched Agentforce Operations, a system designed to automate back-office workflows using AI agents. The compliance angle is direct: Salesforce said the product can turn messy documents and diagrams into digital blueprints, apply workflow changes when new regulations arrive, and record every AI action against the relevant blueprint to create a permanent audit trail. For enterprises trying to deploy agents without losing control of approvals, data verification, and compliance checks, auditability is the point, not the garnish.
Salesforce’s broader data governance case rests on Data 360 Governance. The platform is built to apply policy-driven controls to structured and unstructured data, including access controls for Agentforce, analytics, personalization, and segmentation. Its features include AI tagging and classification, dynamic data masking, encryption, data spaces, private connectivity, and monitoring of data access, all of which map cleanly to AI compliance requirements.Why Salesforce (CRM) Is Building an Audit Trail for Enterprise AI Agents
Image Credit: Pixabay
The company also strengthened this position by completing its acquisition of Informatica on November 18, 2025, adding data integration, quality, governance, unified metadata, lineage, and MDM capabilities to Agentforce and Data 360. In fiscal 2026, Salesforce reported $41.5 billion in revenue, while Agentforce and Data 360 ARR exceeded $2.9 billion.
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) provides CRM, data, integration, analytics, AI agent, automation, and enterprise software platforms.
While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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- Jim Cramer on Salesforce: “It’s Tough Because the Market Hates Software”
May 9, 2026
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is one of the stocks Jim Cramer shared his thoughts on as he discussed Big Tech’s AI spending. When a caller asked about the stock during the episode, Cramer said:
Okay, CRM’s very tough. It’s one of my smallest positions. It’s tough because the market hates software, whether it be Palantir, whether it be ServiceNow, whether it be Salesforce, whether it be Workday. It doesn’t matter. It hates Adobe. It hates software so much that it even has gotten to Microsoft. I’m not going to push anything that’s software.
Photo by Adam Nowakowski on Unsplash
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) provides CRM-focused tools that help businesses manage customer interactions, use AI agents, analyze data, collaborate, and run marketing, commerce, and field service operations. During the April 20 episode, when a caller noted that they are close to taking out their cost basis and sought Cramer’s advice on whether they should trim their position, he responded:
Okay, we have a small position for my Charitable Trust. There was an interesting article today in the Journal about how the good things that, two things that Marc Benioff sees. We’re holding it. We think that… eventually, it’s a long-term position because I think that what Marc’s talking about is stuff that will happen by 2030. If you can wait that long, there’s no need to do anything. But I think that the stock is putting in a bottom here because it’s incredibly cheap. I would not sell it at these prices.
While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
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- Coinbase & Cloudflare's AI-driven layoffs might not be rewarded
May 8, 2026
Cloudflare (NET) announced a round of layoffs, following Coinbase's (COIN) similar announcement at the beginning of the week.
Yahoo Finance Senior Business Reporter Ines Ferré, Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma, and EMJ Capital founder and president Eric Jackson chat with Yahoo Finance's Brian Sozzi about the growing impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the workforce.
Video Transcript
00:00 Speaker A
Coinbase gave us a taste of uh what we didn't realize what was coming to end the week. Now we have Cloudflare cutting 20% of its humans.
00:07 Speaker B
I took a look at Cloudflare's comments around this and it was about AI agents doing the tasks uh for employees. And even if you listen to Brian Armstrong's uh earnings call as well from uh Coinbase, he was also talking about agentic AI and about telling managers that they should be using AI agents and that is really the theme that we're going to be seeing going forward.
00:40 Speaker A
These tech companies are literally redesigning, rewriting job descriptions. And in some cases, these jobs no longer exist because how far technology has advanced, really, um over the past three months.
00:54 Speaker B
As and as was saying, Cloudflare is saying and particularly that the roles that they let go just aren't the roles that are needed for the future. And as you can see on your screen, Challenger Gray and Christmas putting out this report reflecting the numbers that we saw in the month of April. There was about 33,000 job cuts in April within the tech sector alone. But then you take a look at specifically how many of those announced that they were specifically tied to AI, and that was about 26% of total cuts. It's not just Cloudflare, it's not just Block. There are so many others who have also announced layoffs including Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, uh Salesforce, Oracle.
01:42 Speaker C
Nobody likes to see people walking out of a building, even if they are well-paid tech executives, holding a box with their family portraits in it and their various plans. But I will say this, um, we're certainly now looking at a potential earnings boom from a lot of these tech companies in the back half of this year. I'm looking at CloudFlare. I mean here's a company not necessarily investing aggressively in AI infrastructure like a meta. Now laying off 20% of its workforce. I mean how it how won't their back half EPS outlook look absolutely amazing?
02:22 Speaker D
Well, I think it will, but um, it's interesting the reaction. I mean, you just had CloudFlare stock up there. They're down today uh because there's some weakness in their uh, you know, underlying business preceeding this job cut announcement. Same thing with Coinbase. There's a difference between um these companies that might be like reacting to these uh AI job cut announcements defensively versus like last quarter when Block, you know, proactively sort of announced this huge uh job cut out of the out of nowhere when their business was doing fine and then the stock was up like 20%. And last night Kaz uh Najadia and the CEO of of Opendoor really spoke about uh how he was thinking about um AI and implementation and job cuts. He was saying like the basically the dumb companies uh right now are just going to think about adopting AI to to do the same workflows that this company has already done. And what he said the smart companies were doing were totally trying to rethink their internal processes. I think those are the companies that are going to be rewarded going forward.
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- Salesforce AI Shift Agentforce Operations Links Product Adoption To Valuation
May 8, 2026
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Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) launched Agentforce Operations, a new tool aimed at automating complex enterprise workflows, alongside rising adoption of its broader Agentforce AI platform. The company is shifting to a new revenue reporting structure that aligns more closely with its AI offerings and how customers are using its products. These moves highlight how AI is becoming central to how Salesforce builds products and explains its business performance.
Salesforce, trading at $186.34, is rolling out these AI changes while the stock shows mixed performance over different timeframes. NYSE:CRM is up 5.6% over the past week and 1.8% over the past month, but its year-to-date return of a 26.5% decline and a 32.9% decline over the past year point to a tougher stretch for longer term holders.
With Agentforce Operations and a new AI-focused reporting framework, Salesforce is giving investors and customers a clearer view of how AI products sit at the core of its business. For anyone tracking NYSE:CRM, a key consideration is how effectively these tools translate into customer uptake and how the new reporting structure helps clarify where growth is coming from inside the portfolio.
Stay updated on the most important news stories for Salesforce by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Salesforce.NYSE:CRM Earnings & Revenue Growth as at May 2026
📰 Beyond the headline: 0 risks and 4 things going right for Salesforce that every investor should see.
Quick Assessment
✅ Price vs Analyst Target: At $186.34, Salesforce trades about 30% below the US$268.25 analyst price target. ✅ Simply Wall St Valuation: Simply Wall St estimates the stock is trading 46.4% below its fair value. ⚖️ Recent Momentum: The 30 day return is roughly flat at 1.8%, suggesting no clear short term trend.
There is only one way to know the right time to consider buying, selling or holding Salesforce. Head to Simply Wall St's company report for the latest analysis of Salesforce's fair value.
Key Considerations
📊 Agentforce operations and AI focused reporting tie Salesforce's story more directly to how its AI products gain traction with large enterprises. 📊 Watch AI related revenue disclosures, customer adoption metrics and how the current P/E of 20.4 compares with the software industry average P/E of 29.3. ⚠️ A major reporting overhaul can make results harder to compare period to period, so pay close attention to how management bridges old and new metrics.
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Dig Deeper
For the full picture, including more risks and potential rewards, check out the complete Salesforce analysis. Alternatively, you can visit the community page for Salesforce to see how other investors believe this latest news will impact the company's narrative.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Companies discussed in this article include CRM.
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