Salesforce Rides AI Optimism Higher — What’s Next for Wall Street?

According to MarketWatch on Friday (the 11th), investors are beginning to view Salesforce (CRM-US) as a potentially more powerful AI company, but this new narrative will be tested next week at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.

Salesforce’s stock jumped 23% the day after its August earnings release — a move that not only reflects approval of its financial results but also signals investor confidence in its AI strategy. However, analysts remain divided on whether this momentum can be sustained.

On Friday, Salesforce shares rose nearly 2%.

UBS analyst Karl Keirstead noted in a report that investors will be closely watching Claudeforce, the recently announced collaboration that integrates Anthropic’s Claude directly into the Salesforce platform.

Keirstead explained that the partnership combines 'the reasoning capabilities of Anthropic’s advanced models with Salesforce’s built-in customer data, workflows, business logic, and governance mechanisms.'

He emphasized that the core of the announcement is a new plugin enabling users of the AI research lab to access and operate Salesforce data directly through their own platform, bypassing Salesforce’s traditional user interface (UI).

While Keirstead views the partnership positively, he cautioned that it’s too early to assess its impact on Salesforce’s fiscal 2028 revenue growth, which ends in January of that year.

Needham analyst Scott Berg stated that Claudeforce indeed represents a 'strategic shift,' but he remains skeptical about how customers might perceive a Salesforce platform configured with Claude.

Crucially, integrating Claude into Salesforce means, in some ways, ceding control over the user interface layer. For example, the company must relinquish some authority over where users access Salesforce data.

Berg asked, 'Will Salesforce’s decision to have customers using Claude abandon the existing UI to access Salesforce data negatively alter their perception of the Salesforce platform?'

This is a concern for investors, as a diminished perception of the platform’s value could affect customers’ willingness to pay for Salesforce’s data and workflows. Alternatively, the partnership might unlock new functionalities and value from Salesforce data. Berg believes it’s 'too early to tell' at this stage.

The Dreamforce conference will open on September 15.