Salesforce will report quarterly earnings after the bell on Wednesday, with investors watching closely to gauge the software giant’s resilience against a brutal sector-wide sell-off.
The Slack owner has shed around a third of its value this year, badly underperforming both the Nasdaq and the wider software sector as AI disruption fears mount.
Concerns have grown steadily that artificial intelligence could upend traditional seat-based software models, threatening the revenue structures that underpin companies like Salesforce.
Those fears intensified last month after rival ServiceNow suffered a sharp post-earnings plunge, triggering fresh concerns over AI’s potential to erode pricing power across enterprise software.
Salesforce enters results with one significant advantage, however, in the form of its aggressive push into “agentic AI” through its Agentforce platform.
The company said in February that Agentforce annual recurring revenue had surged 169 per cent year-on-year to $800m, while combined Agentforce and Data Cloud revenue reached $2.9bn.
More than 29,000 Agentforce deals have been signed since the platform’s launch, underlining the scale of commercial interest in the company’s AI strategy.
Wall Street expects Salesforce to post quarterly revenue of roughly $11.05bn, representing growth of around 12 per cent year-on-year, alongside adjusted earnings per share of $3.12.
Investors are likely to focus less on headline figures and more on whether AI growth is accelerating fast enough to offset slowing momentum in Salesforce’s legacy CRM Business.
The earnings release arrives at a sensitive moment for the broader software sector, with Bank of America analysts recently warning of a “structural reset” as AI changes how businesses buy and use digital tools.
Deutsche Bank analysts offered a more measured view, suggesting recent market fears may “underappreciate the opportunity for software companies to adapt to new paradigms.”
Despite the sustained sell-off, Salesforce continues to generate substantial cash flow, returning $14.3bn to shareholders last year through buybacks and dividends.
The company has also authorised a fresh $50bn share repurchase programme, signalling confidence in its longer-term financial position despite the turbulent market backdrop.
Options markets are braced for significant volatility following the results, with traders currently pricing in a swing of roughly nine per cent in either direction by the end of the week.