{"id":661159,"date":"2026-08-28T15:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/661159\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T15:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:27:16","slug":"ai-isnt-eating-saas-why-salesforce-and-servicenow-finally-exploded-upward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/661159\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Isn\u2019t Eating SaaS: Why Salesforce and ServiceNow Finally Exploded Upward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Quick Read      <\/p>\n<ul class=\"yf-1jsc1up\">\n<li class=\"yf-1jsc1up\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">CRM surged 22% and NOW climbed 25% after blowout quarters proved AI is expanding enterprise software platforms, not replacing them.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-1jsc1up\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Salesforce&#8217;s Agentforce ARR surged 240% to $1.5B as ServiceNow&#8217;s AI ACV crossed $1B and agentic deployments grew ninefold in nine months.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-1jsc1up\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Salesforce raised FY27 guidance but only $100M came from organic growth, and EPS was inflated by $2.53 from investment gains, clouding the reacceleration call.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-1jsc1up\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks \u2014 and Salesforce didn&#8217;t make the cut. <a href=\"https:\/\/247wallst.com\/lp\/top-10-ai-stocks\/CRM\/?i=f545b86d-c5c9-4cd8-9b82-2c99cfc8db0e&amp;p=aded526a-f78d-426a-9c96-82c54af7e0ab&amp;pos=keypoints&amp;tpid=1650475&amp;l=b17ce983-5361-4dba-a2fd-2469b8705237&amp;c=3af9b05b-bac6-4a46-815a-254223a80206&amp;utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=feed&amp;utm_content=feed||1650475\" data-ylk=\"slk:Grab%20the%20names%20FREE%20today;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Grab the names FREE today&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Grab the names FREE today<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><strong>Salesforce<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/CRM\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:NYSE%3ACRM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;NYSE:CRM&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NYSE:CRM<\/a>) and <strong>ServiceNow<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/NOW\/\" data-ylk=\"slk:NYSE%3ANOW;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;NYSE:NOW&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NYSE:NOW<\/a>) just torched the SaaSpocalypse thesis. Both reported blowout quarters and stocks ripped: CRM jumped 22.58% on earnings day, and NOW has climbed 25.14% over the last month. Investors feared AI would replace enterprise software. These results argue the opposite: AI is expanding the platforms, not eating them.  <\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/7bca7f66d0c82795f1c0a970444774430bb9704786ffac4d2bc4c1d7b7418660\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefit_w960%3Bquality_80%3Bformat_webp\/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2F24_7_wall_st__718%2F31bb704f522561d1c85fb394db9f6778.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"\" height=\"540\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-1f8hkhu loader\"\/><\/a> PeopleImages \/ iStock via Getty Images           Agentforce Broke Out, AI Control Tower Went Standard          <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Salesforce delivered $11.35 billion in revenue, up 10.8% year-over-year, with subscription and support revenue of $10.82 billion, up 12%. The real story sits inside the AI stack. Agentforce ARR crossed $1.5 billion, growing over 240% year-over-year, and combined Agentforce plus Data 360 ARR reached nearly $3.9 billion. Marc Benioff was blunt on the call: &#8220;this nonsense of this SaaSpocalypse, I think it&#8217;s time for it to stop.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">ServiceNow&#8217;s Q2 was arguably louder. Revenue of $3.987 billion grew 24.01% year-over-year, ServiceNow AI ACV crossed $1.00 billion, and agentic deployments increased ninefold over nine months. Bill McDermott framed the platform as &#8220;one platform, one system of action, any cloud, any agent, any workflow, any model, governed, secured, and accountable.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><strong>Act now:<\/strong> the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks \u2014 and Salesforce didn&#8217;t make the cut. <a href=\"https:\/\/247wallst.com\/lp\/top-10-ai-stocks\/CRM\/?i=f545b86d-c5c9-4cd8-9b82-2c99cfc8db0e&amp;p=92103f51-044f-4669-8ba5-a79fcf7642bd&amp;pos=mid_content&amp;tpid=1650475&amp;l=b17ce983-5361-4dba-a2fd-2469b8705237&amp;c=3af9b05b-bac6-4a46-815a-254223a80206&amp;utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=feed&amp;utm_content=feed||1650475\" data-ylk=\"slk:Grab%20the%20names%20FREE%20today;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Grab the names FREE today&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Grab the names FREE today<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-0-0\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><strong>Driver<\/strong>  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-0-1\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><strong>Salesforce<\/strong>  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-0-2\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><strong>ServiceNow<\/strong>  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-1-0\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Revenue growth  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-1-1\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">10.8%  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-1-2\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">24.01%  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-2-0\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Flagship AI metric  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-2-1\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Agentforce ARR $1.5B, +240%  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-2-2\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">ServiceNow AI ACV crossed $1B  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-3-0\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Current RPO  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-3-1\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">$33.5B, +14%  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td rowspan=\"1\" colspan=\"1\" style=\"\" data-testid=\"cell-3-2\" class=\"yf-1habrtv\">\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">$13.2B, +21%  <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>        System of Record vs. System of Action           <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Salesforce is doubling down on being the trusted data spine for every agent. Benioff introduced Headless 360 and ClaudeForce with Anthropic, described as &#8220;the number one AI meeting the number one CRM,&#8221; making Salesforce data accessible through Claude, ChatGPT, Slack, and Teams. Salesforce is returning capital aggressively: a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase cut the diluted share count meaningfully.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">ServiceNow chose governance and cybersecurity. More than 500 customers are live on AI Control Tower, and McDermott wants to move ServiceNow from the number eight company in cybersecurity toward the top, backed by the Armis, Veza, and Moveworks acquisitions. One caveat: Q2 benefited from U.S. Federal on-premise revenue pulled forward from Q3.  <\/p>\n<p>       Next Test Is Sustained Organic Growth         <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Salesforce raised FY27 revenue guidance to $46.10 billion to $46.40 billion, but only $100 million of the raise came from organic performance. I want to see Agentforce credit refills, currently 50% of bookings, keep compounding. For ServiceNow, the pivot to 50% of net new business already non-seat based matters because it undercuts the AI-kills-seats fear head on.  <\/p>\n<p>       Why I Lean Toward ServiceNow, But Own the Case for Both         <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">I find ServiceNow the sharper AI story right now. Growing 24% at nearly $16 billion in subscription revenue with an operating model targeting Rule of 60 is rare. If you want a defensive AI compounding platform with heavy buybacks and a cheaper multiple, Salesforce fits. The $5.90 EPS was inflated by $2.53 per share of strategic investment gains, so I want a cleaner quarter before calling the reacceleration real. Either way, the SaaSpocalypse thesis just took a serious hit.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\"><strong>Act now:<\/strong> the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks \u2014 and Salesforce didn&#8217;t make the cut. <a href=\"https:\/\/247wallst.com\/lp\/top-10-ai-stocks\/CRM\/?i=f545b86d-c5c9-4cd8-9b82-2c99cfc8db0e&amp;p=ea93966a-680e-4e83-abfa-2ea9e7c81711&amp;pos=end_of_article&amp;tpid=1650475&amp;c=3af9b05b-bac6-4a46-815a-254223a80206&amp;l=b17ce983-5361-4dba-a2fd-2469b8705237&amp;utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=feed&amp;utm_content=feed||1650475\" data-ylk=\"slk:Grab%20the%20names%20FREE%20today;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Grab the names FREE today&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Grab the names FREE today<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"text text-block paragraph text-left neo-font-paragraph-xl-reg  yf-18d6y07\" style=\"text-decoration: none; font-style: normal; text-transform: none; text-align: inherit; font-variant-numeric: normal;\">Contact <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/technology\/ai\/articles\/mailto:editorial@247wallst.com?subject=Feedback%3A%20AI%20Isn%E2%80%99t%20Eating%20SaaS%3A%20Why%20Salesforce%20and%20ServiceNow%20Finally%20Exploded%20Upward&amp;body=Please%20share%20your%20feedback%20here%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A---%0D%0A%0D%0ARegarding%20this%20article%3A%20https%3A%2F%2F247wallst.com%2Finvesting%2F2026%2F08%2F28%2Fai-isnt-eating-saas-why-salesforce-and-servicenow-finally-exploded-upward%2F\" data-ylk=\"slk:editorial%40247wallst.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;source:content-canvas%20default\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;editorial@247wallst.com&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yTrafficOrigin&quot;:&quot;content-canvas default&quot;}\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">editorial@247wallst.com<\/a> for any questions or corrections.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quick Read CRM surged 22% and NOW climbed 25% after blowout quarters proved AI is expanding enterprise software&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,18,19,17,14083,82],"class_list":["post-661159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-salesforce","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117173842511969592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}