AI agent has a bright future, Wedbush "likes" Salesforce (CRM.US)

Wedbush Securities said Salesforce's (CRM.US) new generation AI agent platform Agentforce2.0, which was released this week, will further boost demand for the cloud software giant's products and services. Wedbush maintains its "outperform" rating on Salesforce with a target price of $425.Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said: "To accelerate the construction of the next-generation AI agent based on customer data to reduce costs and improve the automation of enterprises, Agentforce2.0 is seeking to make AI able to perform advanced operations for humans and embed a higher trust layer for agents to pave the way for the new era of digital labor."He added: "The data cloud remains a key part of the Agentforce story as it allows agents to input customer data and contextualize business to improve AI capabilities, automating low-value and repetitive tasks as 41% of time is spent on these tasks."Ives noted that Agentforce2.0 will further solidify Salesforce's position in the AI agent field, thus lifting the company's total potential market size from $439bn in 2028 to $749bn in 2030.Ives said that with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announcing the hiring of 2,000 salespeople to sell its AI software, the company seems to be preparing to further boost revenue from generative AI.Ives said: "As the AI revolution enters the software stage in 2025, Salesforce is well-positioned to take a reasonable share of market expansion as the AI monetization phase will drive Salesforce's growth in the next 12 to 18 months, as the company is set to tap into the $7tn digital labor market opportunity."As of writing, Salesforce rose 0.86% before the market opened to $353.57.