GoKawiilSalesforce earnings suggest software firms, not AI models, may capture most AI value
An opinion piece argues that Salesforce's strong recent earnings undercut the widely held 'SaaSpocalypse' theory, which assumed AI agents would soon replace most enterprise software. The author contends investors have wiped out roughly $2 trillion in software valuations by wrongly asking whether AI can perform a task, rather than whether a company controls data or infrastructure AI agents actually need to function.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
If the piece's thesis holds, software companies with proprietary data, workflows or customer relationships could retain pricing power even as AI models themselves become commoditized and cheap. That would reshape how investors value SaaS stocks versus AI model developers, since intelligence alone may not be the scarce, monetizable asset many assumed it to be.
- Salesforce's earnings challenge the 'SaaSpocalypse' narrative that AI agents will replace software companies wholesale.
- Frontier AI models are becoming commoditized and interchangeable as competitors rapidly match each other's capabilities.
- The real competitive edge may lie with firms controlling data or systems that AI agents depend on, not the models themselves.
Source: cnbc.com — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, 2026-08-29
Published there as: “Op-ed: Salesforce just revealed the next battleground in AI — and it's not the models”
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