Salesforce: Its Biggest AI Threat Just Became Its Partner

Last week, Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) reported strong second-quarter results, but the bigger story was a deal that makes Anthropic's Claude the default reasoning engine inside Salesforce's products. Claude runs in Agentforce, Slack, and Slack's coding product, so Salesforce customers get a frontier model without ever leaving its ecosystem. The stock had its best day since 2020, jumping nearly 23% on the news.

In short, it seems the bearish thesis that large language models would erode Salesforce's competitive moat is beginning to fade. CEO Marc Benioff addressed it, stating, "This is not the SaaSpocalypse."

Image source: The Motley Fool.

The upgrade path

The deal with Anthropic does two things for Salesforce. First, it removes a near-term risk by bringing a potential rival into the fold. "We're huge Salesforce customers," Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei confirmed. "We're not interested in destroying anyone."

Second, it strengthens the company's primary path to monetizing AI. Salesforce's premium editions cost 60% to 80% more per seat, and the new AI features are only available with premium subscriptions.

Given that just 5% of its sales and service users are currently on premium tiers, this deal provides Salesforce with a powerful new opportunity to upsell its customers and fuel further revenue growth. Importantly, it doesn't lock Salesforce's clients into using only Claude.

Its second-quarter results were solid, with revenue up 11% and earnings per share up 16% after excluding gains related to the company's stake in Anthropic. Annualized revenue for Agentforce, its AI product line, climbed 240% to $1.5 billion. And current remaining performance obligations (the value of signed contracts due within a year) grew 14%, up modestly from last quarter's 13%.

Aiding clients with AI

I think this partnership is a smart move by Benioff. It puts the top large language model inside Salesforce's product, out of the box, and users can swap models if they prefer.

The best way for Salesforce to encourage AI adoption is to help its clients use AI to improve efficiency while protecting their data. The company is moving in that direction, but it still faces an uphill battle with seat-based pricing. Benioff admits Salesforce is "still trapped in some ways in old per-user pricing models."

After the stock's recent run, shares trade at a reasonable 17.5 times forward earnings. The overhang of disruption-related fears is lifting, which should reinforce investor confidence in Salesforce's long-term value. Moving forward, the company can focus on driving growth.

Bryan White has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Salesforce. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.