SaaS Stocks Are Rallying on AI Optimism. 3 Stocks to Buy Now.
Key Points
Microsoft continues to see strong growth with both its software and cloud businesses.
ServiceNow is seeing AI agent orchestration drive growth with its customers.
Salesforce is well-positioned to become a leader in agentic AI.
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Over much of the past couple of years, software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks have been pummeled. The popular narrative has been that artificial intelligence (AI) will render the software layer unnecessary or, at the very least, negatively impact their user-based pricing models. Even as these companies continued to show solid growth, nothing was often good enough in the eyes of investors to change the narrative.
However, it looks like the sector has finally hit a bottom, with SaaS stocks starting to rally. With the worst possibly behind these stocks, let's look at three SaaS stocks to buy right now.
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1. Microsoft: The early AI leader
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was one of the first companies to really embrace AI and bring it to the mainstream with a large investment in and partnership with OpenAI. However, that hasn't completely spared the company from the SaaS sell-off.
While Microsoft's stock has lagged the market, its operational performance has been strong. Its Microsoft 365 Commercial business has been gaining traction, with enterprises rapidly adopting its Copilot AI assistant. Last quarter, the company saw a huge 250% year-over-year jump in paid Copilot users to 20 million. Overall, its software business grew its revenue by an impressive 17%.
At the same time, its Azure cloud computing business remains on fire, growing revenue by another 39% last quarter. Microsoft's annual recurring AI revenue, meanwhile, surged 123%, with the company saying it was seeing "unprecedented growth" for its GitHub solution driven by agentic coding.
As a company entrenched in its customers' workflows, Microsoft looks poised to be an AI winner, not a loser.
Image source: Getty Images.
2. ServiceNow: Looking to be an agentic AI orchestration platform
SaaS stocks most likely to be AI winners are those deeply embedded in their customers' data and workflows. Perhaps no company better fits this description than ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW), the platform IT departments use to run their entire software stacks.
The company's configuration management database (CMDB) is an indispensable system of record that charts the structural relationships between hardware, software, cloud services, and business processes. That is something that is neither easily replaced nor replicated. The CMDB also serves as the foundation of the company's big push to become an agentic AI orchestration platform.
ServiceNow's AI Control Tower solution can find every AI agent and model running within an enterprise and not just track their performance but also monitor security risks and ensure they adhere to governance rules.
The company has been a consistent 20%-plus revenue grower, and AI Control Tower adds another big potential growth driver that is just getting started. The age of agentic AI is here, and ServiceNow looks like one of the SaaS companies best positioned to benefit from this trend.
3. Salesforce: A leading AI agent platform
Another SaaS company looking to become an agentic AI leader is Salesforce (NYSE: CRM). The company has always been good at breaking down departmental data silos, but it has quietly positioned itself to be an important master of records for AI agents.
It's done this by introducing Data 360, which uses zero-copy technology to pull data not only from within an organization but also from cloud providers and data warehouses, without incurring the time and cost of transferring it. It then acquired master data management company Informatica to clean, structure, and govern this data.
AI agents need clean, structured data to perform well and avoid costly hallucinations, and these maneuvers position Salesforce's Agentforce platform as a leading agentic AI solution. Agentforce is growing quickly, although it's still early and hasn't yet materially impacted its revenue growth.
However, the overall opportunity is huge, and the stock is still in the bargain bin even after rallying, trading at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 3.5 and a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 14 based on current-year analyst estimates.
Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity
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Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join Stock Advisor, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.
See the 3 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of June 6, 2026.
Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Salesforce and ServiceNow. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft, Salesforce, and ServiceNow. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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