Salesforce ‘Putting Real Wood Behind Its AI Arrow’ But Mass Agentic Adoption Will Take Time, Says Analyst: Retail Mood Stays Subdued

Following Macquarie’s client call with Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) management, an analyst at the firm said the customer relationship management software company is “putting real wood behind its [artificial intelligence] AI arrow.”

That said, the research team led by analyst Steve Koenig said the management is being careful to evolve the company thoughtfully. Citing field checks and management commentary, the analyst said he is increasingly confident that the traction with Agentforce is real.

Agentforce is Saleforce’s agentic AI platform used to build and deploy autonomous AI agents.

However, Koenig said mass market adoption of agentic AI will take time, probably two years due to reasons related to customer trust, data readiness and alignment of value with pricing.

According to the analyst, executing the pricing model smoothly could be challenging amid a nearly 90% decline in large-language model (LLM) inference cost.

Macquarie said it remained on the sidelines for now. The firm said that a meaningful fiscal year in 2026 revenue outperformance is needed for the stock to outperform. This will require the stabilization of sequential subscription revenue additions following a three-year downtrend, it added.

The firm has a ‘Neutral’ rating on Macquarie stock and $320 price target, implying an upside potential of about 15%.

Salesforce’s fourth-quarter results released in late February showed better-than-expected earnings and roughly in-line revenue growth. However, the stock reacted negatively to the slowdown in key performance metrics and the weak forward guidance.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward Salesforce stock stayed ‘neutral’ (49/100) and the message volume was ‘extremely low.’

CRM sentiment and message volume March 20, as of 9:25 pm ET | Source: Stocktwits

A bearish watcher expressed discomfort at the company’s cash flow and CEO Marc Benioff’s tall claims.

Another user said the stock needs to backfill the gap to the $256 level.

Salesforce stock ended Thursday’s session down 0.13% at $279.03, roughly in line with the broader market performance.

The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $212-$369 and is down over 16% year-to-date.

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