This article coincides with the debate about SaaS here the last couple weeks.
A few excerpts:
>...Salesforce’s struggle serves as a warning sign for other legacy SaaS providers like Adobe ([NASDAQ: ADBE](https://markets.financialcontent.com/wral/quote?Symbol=NQ%3AADBE)) and ServiceNow ([NYSE: NOW](https://markets.financialcontent.com/wral/quote?Symbol=NY%3ANOW)). These companies are also racing to implement agentic workflows, and they now face the same scrutiny regarding valuation and growth. The "loser" in this scenario is arguably the traditional per-seat licensing model. If an AI agent can perform the work of five entry-level sales associates, the customer may no longer see the value in paying for five Slack or Sales Cloud seats, creating a significant headwind for Salesforce’s legacy revenue streams.
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>Historically, this moment mirrors the transition from "on-premise" software to the cloud in the early 2000s—a transition that Salesforce itself led. Just as that shift required a radical rethinking of business models and sales strategies, the move to an agentic enterprise requires a departure from the volume-based seat model toward a value-based or consumption-based model. The market’s current skepticism is a reflection of the uncertainty surrounding this "Great Re-pricing" of enterprise software.
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>The most likely scenario for 2026 involves a period of "valuation consolidation." As Salesforce iterates on Agentforce 2.0 and gathers more data on ROI from its early enterprise adopters, the market may eventually reward the company for its foresight. However, until the revenue from AI agents begins to eclipse the losses from a slowing core business, the stock may remain a laggard in a market that has become increasingly impatient with "AI potential" and hungry for "AI profits."