AI is no ‘business killer’: Why Wall Street is buying software stocks in 2026

The decease of bundle has been greatly exaggerated.

"If AI is going to termination a business, the signs would already beryllium there," D.A. Davidson expert Gil Luria said successful a probe note, observing the manufacture is present successful its 3rd twelvemonth of the AI shift.

The biggest interaction connected the bundle manufacture frankincense acold has been "narrative and frightened customers unwilling to commit," helium added. The second whitethorn beryllium a origin that's starting to change, arsenic companies travel to recognize "neither they nor their bundle vendors person been tally over" by AI.

As this "scared" wealth returns to the market, analysts from DA Davidson, Piper Sandler, and Truist Securities identified names apt to pb the recovery. A communal thread runs passim the trio's picks: These companies supply the infrastructure upon which AI is built.

D.A. Davidson's apical picks absorption connected specialized maturation and infrastructure resilience. Luria's prime for 2026 is Commvault (CVLT), wherever helium sees a monolithic 50%+ upside and a $220 terms people driven by sustained momentum and a rebound successful margins.

Other stocks to ticker see Manhattan Associates (MANH), a proviso concatenation and retail bundle company. The concern is simply a "subscription acceleration story" with an ROIC northbound of 100% and terms people of $250. Up adjacent is selling level Zeta Global (ZETA), which is benefitting from the "replacement of bequest selling tech" and carries a $29 target.

Rounding retired the database are Box (BOX), which is gaining crushed via "Enterprise Advanced" upgrades with a $45 target, and Datadog (DDOG), labeled the "complete Observability platform" for analyzable AI-driven environments with a $225 terms target.

Parallel to Luria's list, Piper Sandler expert James Fish is looking toward the "Gen Z" winners and infrastructure plays. Fish highlights Rubrik (RBRK) with a $75 terms people for its completed SaaS transition; Nutanix (NTNX), priced astatine $50, arsenic it gains stock from VMware; and Axon (AXON), with a $563 terms target, for its recurring exemplary successful nationalist information and drone integration.

Meanwhile, Truist Securities expert Terry Tillman writes that bundle skepticism often centers connected "seat and license-based pricing" — the thought that if AI makes humans much efficient, companies volition bargain less bundle licenses. However, helium argues that the manufacture is simply evolving, arsenic the emergence of agentic AI — autonomous bots performing tasks 24/7 — encourages a displacement toward consumption-based pricing.

"As workflows determination from human-initiated tasks to autonomous agents executing astatine scale, billing tied to usage becomes the astir logical mode to seizure value," Tillman wrote, citing examples specified arsenic compute, information processing, and transactions. Unlike humans, AI agents don't sleep, meaning billable events tin compound astir the clock.