Did Salesforce Just Figure Out How to Beat the "SaaSpocalypse" With Its New Acquisition? Shares Are an Incredible Bargain If It Did.

Like virtually all software stocks, enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) giant Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) has been hit hard this year. Shares are down a stunning 42% on the year and now trade just slightly higher than 10 times this year's adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings per share guidance.

The decline is not unique to Salesforce, though; the entire software sector has been decimated due to fears over artificial intelligence's new ability to code as well as the best human engineers.

Software bulls would say that artificial intelligence (AI) could actually benefit certain software companies as long as they can pivot from a subscription model to a usage- or outcome-based model.

On that note, Salesforce just made an acquisition that has actually already made this transition and is now growing at triple-digit rates. Given that Salesforce needs to do the same, this acquisition isn't just about the acquiree's revenue and profits but also about the capabilities it could bring to the whole organization.

What is Fin, and why did Salesforce buy it?

On June 15, Salesforce announced it was buying customer service software company Fin, formerly known as Intercom, for $3.6 billion.

Some may think that Salesforce just acquired another "me too" customer service software suite. But Fin has proven itself to be more than that. When OpenAI released ChatGPT back in late 2022, Intercom founders Eoghan McCabe and Des Traynor went all in on artificial intelligence.

McCabe had a relationship with OpenAI even before ChatGPT debuted, and he was quick to introduce its new AI-powered software in early 2023. At first, the software was dedicated to helping customer service agents via automated summaries and inbox improvements. But when GPT-4 came out, Intercom decided to develop a fully customer-facing autonomous customer service agent called Fin and even renamed the company after it.

Fin has evolved to model-building and outcome pricing

With years of expertise in customer service software and a strong focus in this area, Fin appears to have married its proprietary knowledge with the capabilities of new language models, making it a true, fully autonomous customer service agent.

At first, Fin used either OpenAI's ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude as the underlying intelligence, then incorporated Fin's proprietary data and expertise to understand the complexities of a customer service call. When Fin launched, it resolved about 25% of customer service interactions. By May 2025, that had increased to 56%. Today, Fin's average resolution rate without human intervention averages 76%.

Image source: Getty Images.

What's really exciting about Fin is that in March, it unveiled its own proprietary model called Apex 1.0. So, whereas Fin was previously dependent on external large language models, it now has its own proprietary one built by Fin's 60-person AI technology team. Using its own vertical model specifically developed for customer service, Fin claims it's the highest-performing customer service model on the market, with faster time to first token and lower hallucinations than the large general models.

Just as important is that Fin has already transitioned to an outcome-based pricing model, where the customer pays only for fully automated customer service resolutions. That has resulted in reaccelerating growth for Fin, which saw its agentic annual recurring revenue (ARR) reach around $100 million and grow at 350% at the time of the transaction. Fin also had some legacy software ARR of around $300 million, bringing the total to $400 million. So, Salesforce is paying about 9 times sales.

But Salesforce is buying a lot more than that

Of course, Salesforce isn't just buying Fin's growing ARR. Rather, it's buying a team of AI technologists who have already made the exact transition Salesforce needs to make -- from a recurring, subscription-based, human-driven software business to an outcome- or usage-based agentic AI software business powered by its own internally developed models.

The trepidation around that transition is why Salesforce has fallen to an extremely low valuation of just 10 times this year's earnings guidance. However, if Fin and Fin's team can help successfully deploy AI agentic capabilities across Salesforce's vast, far-reaching enterprise, that could very well ensure Salesforce's pivot is a success.

And if that happens, the stock has tremendous recovery potential from its current depressed valuation.

Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have positions in Salesforce. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Salesforce. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.