Salesforce NYSE:CRM fell 4.73% after Bernstein downgraded the Salesforce NYSE:CRM fell 4.73% after Bernstein downgraded the stock to Sector Weight from Outperform, citing a lack of evidence that Agentforce is gaining commercial traction. The firm also withdrew its price target, saying customer checks and recent CIO surveys pointed to weaker-than-expected adoption of Salesforce's flagship AI offering.
According to customer conversations, Bernstein highlighted two challenges. The enterprise data remains insufficiently organized to support broad AI deployments, and Agentforce itself has yet to deliver compelling functionality. The firm also said its survey found more CIOs expect to reduce Salesforce spending over the next 12 months than increase it, while disclosed financial metrics have not supported management's comments that new order values are accelerating alongside AI adoption.
While Bernstein continues to view Salesforce as a deeply embedded software platform with a durable customer base, it now believes meaningful growth from Agentforce is likely to take longer than expected, if it materializes at all.