Salesforce, Inc. (CRM): Analyst Upgrade Driven by Strong AI Outlook, Agentforce Growth, and 2025 Expansion

We recently compiled a list of the 8 Unstoppable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Invest In. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) stands against the other AI stocks.

AI continues to accelerate rapidly, moving from emerging technologies to influencing how businesses operate. From developing AI agents to communicating with technology, AI technologies appear to be well-placed to transform the working environments. In 2025, AI is expected to revolutionize technology, significantly impacting businesses and data centers. In the current year, AI-powered Agents might transform industries, sectors, and everyday tasks.

The agents are expected to execute tasks autonomously, refine the workflows, and enable individuals to remain focused on higher-value activities.

AI and its Impact on Interest Rates

Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard economist, explained the significant impact of AI on the global economy, primarily related to interest rates. He spoke to CNBC-TV18 at WEF in Davos and highlighted how artificial intelligence has been fueling shifts in productivity, labor markets, and inflation, which influence the decisions of central banks. As per the economist, AI continues to act as one of the factors responsible for higher interest rates, reiterating its increasing impact on financial markets and economic policy. With the advancement of AI technologies, apart from reshaping productivity, they also alter the dynamics of economic growth.

The integration of AI across sectors is expected to result in significant shifts in labor markets and broader investment strategies, which contribute to inflationary pressures.

READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.

Trends Likely to Shape AI in 2025

As per SAP, advanced AI agents capable of planning, reasoning, using tools, collaborating with humans and other agents, and reflecting on progress till the objective is achieved are on the horizon. Future AI agents, or multi-agent systems (MAS), will be able to collaborate to understand the business user, get all the context, and then structure the problem to interact with domain-specific expert AI agents. Over the five-year horizon, AI agents are expected to simplify significant portions of workflows. This includes aspects that were resistant to automation, like exceptions in customer service and specific programming activities such as coding or debugging software.

While 2024 revolved around introducing AI use cases, SAP believes that 2025 is expected to see the industry’s adoption of AI specifically for businesses. AI is expected to mature to the point where it can handle critical business issues including managing multi-national complexities. Also, AI’s next frontier focuses on seamlessly unifying people, data, and processes with a focus on enhancing business outcomes. The year 2025 might see increased adoption of AI throughout the workforce as people know the benefits of humans plus AI.

Our Methodology

To list the 8 Unstoppable Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks to Invest In, we used a screener and sifted through several online rankings. We shortlisted the AI stocks that have gained more than 25% over the past 6 months and in which analysts expect an upside of at least 20%. Finally, the stocks were arranged in ascending order of their average upside potential, as of 24 January. We also mentioned the hedge fund sentiments around each stock, as of Q3 2025.

At Insider Monkey we are obsessed with the stocks that hedge funds pile into. The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Is Salesforce, Inc. (CRM) the Best Stock to Buy for High Returns in 2025?

A customer service team in an office setting using the company’s Customer 360 platform to communicate with customers.

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Percentage Return Over 6 Months: ~30.5%

Average Upside Potential: ~23.1%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 116

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is an AI-driven business that integrates AI into its customer relationship management platform and other enterprise solutions. TD Cowen analyst Derrick Wood upgraded the company’s stock to a “Buy,” setting a price target of $400.00. The analyst’s rating is backed by several factors influencing the company’s prospective growth and market position. Notably, a key driver for change in the rating from “Hold” to “Buy” revolves around a healthy outlook for the Agentforce platform, which saw significant interest and is projected to have a strong adoption curve.

This enthusiasm is demonstrated in Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s favorable rankings in IT survey data, primarily in software spending intentions along with AI budget allocations for 2025. The company’s future growth is backed by several factors. Firstly, the success of Agentforce and other AI-driven products is expected to reignite growth. Next, Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s broad product portfolio offers opportunities to expand within the current customer base.

Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s strong understanding of customer needs and extensive data sets might be used to establish more effective AI solutions. Montaka Global Investments, an investment management company, published a Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“There are multiple structural trends in the enterprise software space, including (i) the ongoing cloud migrations and digital transformations of enterprises, and (ii) the infusion of AI into software applications.

While the former remains in its early innings (80-85% of enterprise workloads still reside ‘on-premise’ – many of which will ultimately move to public clouds), the latter remains in its infancy.

Given all the hype of late, it’s hard to fathom that large-scale deployments of AI-based enterprise applications have barely even started. It’s all still to come. And we believe 2025 will be the first year that we really start to see meaningful deployments and adoption of these kinds of applications.

Consider another of our top 10 holdings, Salesforce, for example. Its revenue growth is at a cyclical low. Indeed, at just +8% per annum, as reported in the company’s most recent quarter, its rate of revenue growth has never been lower.

But in 2025, not only will price increases that were announced two years ago boost Salesforce, Inc.’s (NYSE:CRM) revenue growth, but the year will also mark the early stages of adoption of the company’s new ‘Agentforce’ (released only weeks ago). This is a new platform that lets businesses build and deploy their own custom AI agents to automate tasks, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experiences…” (Click here to read the full text)

Overall CRM ranks 8th on our list of the unstoppable AI stocks to invest in. While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than CRM but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.