Salesforce's AI Strategy Reduces Disintermediation Risk, BofA Says in Upgrade

11:12 AM EDT, 10/12/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Salesforce (CRM) has established a credible artificial intelligence strategy that reduces the risk of the company becoming obsolete amid a transition toward agentic AI, BofA Securities said in a Monday client note. BofA previously worried that enterprise AI adoption might prompt businesses to bypass the customer relationship management platform. But industry feedback suggests large companies are not expected to discard platforms that manage their data, operational workflows and compliance systems, the brokerage said. AI may even help deepen customer dependence on these platforms, according to BofA analysts including Tal Liani. "We believe Salesforce offers one of the most comprehensive approaches to enterprise AI adoption," Liani wrote. "While our prior work emphasized disintermediation risk, we now focus on the company's ability to capture value across the AI stack." Agentic AI is transforming traditional CRM platforms, which were built for humans to interpret and act on data. Agentic systems leverage AI to reason over data and take action autonomously, Salesforce said on its website. "Our report addresses two critical questions: whether Salesforce has a credible AI strategy and whether AI can expand enterprise spending on the platform," Liani wrote. "Our positive view on both, together with strong (free cash flow) generation and expected growth re-acceleration, drives our upgrade and supports a modest valuation premium." BofA upgraded its rating on the stock to buy from underperform, and boosted the price target to $285 from $160. Shares of Salesforce were up 2.7% in Monday trade. The stock has fallen about 11% since the start of the year. In August, the company reported free cash flow of $1.1 billion in the fiscal second quarter, up 81% year over year. Last month, Salesforce said it is expanding its partnerships with Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google Cloud, and Amazon.com's (AMZN) Amazon Web Services to strengthen its agentic enterprise capabilities and expand its AI footprint across third-party infrastructure. BofA is projecting earnings per share of $16.76 for Salesforce for fiscal 2027, representing 34% growth year over year, compared with the Visible Alpha-polled consensus of $16.75. In July, Salesforce rival ServiceNow (NOW) reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results. Price: 234.83, Change: +5.70, Percent Change: +2.49