Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a core part of everyday business operations. Companies are using AI applications and agents to automate routine tasks, analyze large datasets, and improve overall productivity. In fact, the global AI software market is estimated to grow from $293 billion in 2025 to $386 billion in 2026, and then to $995 billion in 2030, according to the Business Research Company.
As businesses adopt AI at scale, companies with software platforms combining data, workflow, and AI technologies stand to benefit the most. Here’s why Palantir Technologies (PLTR +1.50%), Salesforce (CRM +2.51%), and Microsoft (MSFT +0.88%) fit the bill. If I were starting an AI-focused stock portfolio today, these stocks are where I’d start my research. Here’s why.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. Palantir Technologies
Palantir is gaining attention as a prominent AI software stock in 2026, as companies move from experimenting with AI to using it in real business operations.
The company’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) allows organizations to connect large language models with operational data and workflows. The company’s ontology framework helps map real-world assets and operations with disparate data sources and digital counterparts, enabling AI models to work effectively with real operational data and business processes.
AIP Bootcamps are also accelerating adoption. These short, hands-on workshops enable companies to build working AI applications using their own data in just a few days. Instead of spending months testing pilot projects, organizations can quickly see how AIP can improve real business workflows and then expand to large deployments.
Today’s Change
(1.50%) $2.27
Current Price
$153.22
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$361B
Day’s Range
$151.18 – $153.69
52wk Range
$66.12 – $207.52
Volume
840K
Avg Vol
49M
Gross Margin
82.37%
That shift toward production deployments is showing up in the company’s financial results. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 (ending Dec. 31, 2025), revenue increased 70% year over year to $1.41 billion. Much of the momentum was from the company’s commercial segment, where demand for AIP is accelerating.
U.S. commercial revenue rose 137% year over year to $507 million in the fourth quarter. Management expects that figure to exceed $3.14 billion in fiscal 2026, implying year-over-year growth of at least 115%. Government demand is also strong, as evidenced by the 66% year-over-year jump in U.S. government revenue to $570 million in the fourth quarter.
All these factors have positioned the company as one of the most important enterprise AI software companies in 2026.
2. Salesforce
Salesforce is becoming one of the clearest enterprise AI stories in 2026, as the company has already started monetizing its AI agent platform, Agentforce.
Agentforce is Salesforce’s platform for building, deploying, and managing AI agents that can perform tasks across business workflows, such as sales, customer service, and data analysis. These agents can access various data sources, trigger actions inside applications, and help automate routine work for Salesforce and its clients. Agentforce reached around $800 million in annual recurring revenue in fiscal 2026, up 169% year over year. In its first 15 months since launch, the company has closed 29,000 Agentforce deals.
The company also sees AI contributing to large enterprise contracts. In the fourth quarter, the number of deals worth over $1 million increased 26% year over year, while the number of deals worth over $10 million grew 33% year over year. Each of the company’s top 10 largest deals included Agentforce, along with products such as Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and the company’s data platform. Salesforce has also strengthened this data layer with its recent Informatica acquisition, which helps enterprises clean, govern, and unify customer data used by AI agents.
Today’s Change
(2.51%) $4.84
Current Price
$197.67
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$178B
Day’s Range
$195.15 – $198.63
52wk Range
$174.57 – $296.05
Volume
5.8M
Avg Vol
12M
Gross Margin
75.28%
Dividend Yield
0.86%
Salesforce’s large installed base of more than 100 million paid seats across nearly 150,000 enterprise customers presents a significant opportunity to monetize its AI capabilities through both subscriptions and usage-based pricing. The company is monetizing AI by upgrading its customers to higher-value software tiers with embedded AI, witnessing increased seat demand as AI improves return on software deployment, and selling consumption credits for customer-facing agents.
Salesforce still faces pressures in areas such as marketing software and analytics tools. However, as enterprises seek secure and trusted ways to deploy agents within real business processes, Salesforce stands to benefit from its large installed base and vast troves of customer data.
3. Microsoft
Microsoft may not seem like an obvious choice as an AI software stock. The company is better known for its large enterprise software portfolio and Azure cloud computing platform.
However, Microsoft has recently begun monetizing its AI capabilities across several business lines. The company has embedded AI into widely used software products such as Microsoft 365 and GitHub, while Azure provides the computing infrastructure needed to power these workloads.
As AI adoption rises, Microsoft benefits through multiple channels, including higher cloud consumption, software subscriptions, and usage-based monetization tied to AI agents. Over time, the company expects AI revenue to come from a mix of subscriptions and consumption-based pricing, as businesses move from chatbots to task-based assistants and agents.
Today’s Change
(0.88%) $3.46
Current Price
$399.01
Key Data Points
Market Cap
$2.9T
Day’s Range
$394.80 – $399.61
52wk Range
$344.79 – $555.45
Volume
982K
Avg Vol
34M
Gross Margin
68.59%
Dividend Yield
0.88%
Microsoft is already seeing impressive results. The company exited the second quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending Dec. 31, 2025) with roughly 15 million paid Microsoft 365 Copilot seats, up more than 160% year over year. More than 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft 365 Copilot. GitHub Copilot, the AI-powered coding assistant, also had 4.7 million paid subscribers at the end of the second quarter. With more than 450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial seats, Microsoft still has a large opportunity to expand AI upgrades across its installed base.
Microsoft is also introducing a new E7 subscription tier for Microsoft 365 starting May 1. Priced almost 65% higher than the E5 subscription, E7 tier bundles Copilot with identity tools and agent governance capabilities.
These Copilot-driven initiatives could increase Microsoft 365’s average revenue per user, while making the platform more deeply embedded in enterprise workflows. As more work flows through Microsoft 365, Microsoft gains access to richer contextual data that could further improve the performance of its AI tools.
Hence, while Microsoft’s portfolio spans multiple products and platforms, AI-powered software monetization is emerging as an important growth driver in 2026.
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