Bank of America reinstated coverage of ServiceNow and Salesforce on Monday, assigning the two software companies starkly different ratings based on artificial intelligence [1].
The move signals a growing divide in how Wall Street views the transition to agentic AI, suggesting that some legacy platforms may struggle to adapt while others are built for the shift.
Analysts at Bank of America, including Tal Liani, assigned ServiceNow a Buy rating with a price target of $130 [1]. The firm described the company as a clear beneficiary of the AI wave [1]. Liani said, "ServiceNow is a clear AI beneficiary" [1].
In contrast, the bank reinstated coverage of Salesforce with an Underperform rating [2]. The analysts set a price target of $160 for the company [2]. This rating, which is equivalent to a sell recommendation, stems from the belief that the company is facing a structural reset driven by the AI transition [2].
An analyst from Bank of America said, "We see a structural reset driven by the AI transition" [2]. This suggests the firm believes Salesforce may need to fundamentally alter its business model or product offering to remain competitive in the new landscape.
Not all market observers agree with the bearish outlook on Salesforce. Jim Cramer discussed the downgrade on CNBC, and said that he still thinks Salesforce can turn it around despite the downgrade [3].
The diverging targets reflect the specific ways these companies integrate AI into workflow automation, and customer relationship management. While ServiceNow is viewed as having a framework ready for the agentic AI era, the Underperform rating for Salesforce indicates a lack of confidence in the company's current AI trajectory [1, 2].
“"ServiceNow is a clear AI beneficiary."”
The contrasting ratings from Bank of America highlight a critical inflection point for enterprise software. By favoring ServiceNow over Salesforce, analysts are suggesting that the ability to integrate 'agentic' AI—AI that can take autonomous action within a workflow—is becoming the primary metric for valuation, potentially displacing traditional CRM dominance.
