Salesforce, Inc. CRM used its fiscal second-quarter earnings call to argue that artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding platform value rather than displacing enterprise software. Management tied that case to stronger bookings, low attrition and rising AI consumption.
The company also raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook and reiterated confidence in second-half organic revenue reacceleration as analysts pressed on AI monetization and deployment.
CRM Reacceleration Case Gains Support
Robin Washington, president, chief operating and financial officer, said net new annual order value growth was the strongest in four years, while attrition remained near record lows. Contract terms also improved across segments.
Washington said first-half net new AOV growth significantly outpaced AOV growth, keeping Salesforce on track for second-half organic revenue reacceleration. Third-quarter cRPO growth is expected at about 14% in constant currency.
Non-GAAP earnings were $5.9, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.27. Revenues of $11.35 billion topped the $11.32 billion consensus estimate, while non-GAAP operating margin was 34.1%.
Salesforce AI Demand Moves Into Production
Marc Benioff, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, said AI and data ARR was approaching $4 billion, with Agentforce ARR above $1.5 billion. Accounts with agents in production rose 70% sequentially.
During Q&A, Miguel Milano, president and chief operating officer, said Salesforce added 2,000 paying customers in production. He added that 50% of Agentforce bookings came from customers replenishing Flex Credits after prior consumption.
Customers generated 3.2 billion Agentic Work Units in the quarter, up 97% sequentially. Bookings from Agentforce One Edition and Agentforce for Apps more than doubled quarter over quarter.
CRM Broadens AI Pricing and Premium Editions
A Morgan Stanley analyst asked about movement from pilots into paid production. Milano emphasized production growth, repeat consumption and short refill sales cycles.
A Goldman Sachs analyst focused on the economics of Agentforce, Headless and Claudeforce. Washington said Salesforce is still working through Headless monetization but expects premium upgrades and flexible pricing to support monetization.
Milano said only 5% of knowledge workers using Sales and Service have upgraded to higher-end editions, which carry a 60% to 80% premium. Benioff highlighted user, consumption and business-outcome pricing as parallel models.
Salesforce Makes Claudeforce a Core Surface
An Evercore ISI analyst asked how Salesforce and Anthropic plan to take Claudeforce to market. Benioff said the companies will work jointly in the field, with Salesforce sellers incorporating the product into demonstrations.
Milano said Claudeforce is expected to become generally available in September around Dreamforce and will require premium editions. He described it as complementary to Slack rather than a replacement.
Benioff organized the broader strategy around data, applications and semantics, agents, and interfaces. AIforce is intended to connect those layers so Salesforce data and workflows can reach surfaces such as Claude and Slack.
CRM Raises Outlook With Organic and M&A Lift
Washington said Salesforce raised fiscal 2027 revenue guidance to $46.1 billion to $46.4 billion. The $300 million constant-currency increase includes $100 million from organic performance and $200 million from expected Contentful and Fin contributions.
The outlook also incorporates a $100 million foreign-exchange headwind versus prior guidance. Salesforce maintained its non-GAAP operating margin target at about 34.3% and operating and free cash flow growth guidance of about 4% to 5%.
For the third quarter, revenue is expected at $11.42 billion to $11.5 billion, or 11% to 12% growth in constant currency. Milano said Salesforce remains committed to sustaining organic revenue acceleration.
Salesforce Frames the Next Phase
Benioff pushed back on concerns that AI will weaken enterprise software demand, citing year-over-year seat growth in Sales, Service and Slack, near-record-low attrition and a sixfold increase in agentic platform usage.
Milano added that demand remains strong, pipelines are at record levels, and Salesforce plans to hire 1,200 more account executives before year-end. Management is focused on converting AI adoption into broader platform usage and monetization.
CRM Zacks Signals Stay Mixed
CRM carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), with a Value and Growth Score of B each, a Momentum Score of D and a VGM Score of B. Under the Style Score framework, the B grades are favorable, while the D Momentum Score represents a weaker near-term timing signal.
The Zacks Rank #3 sits outside the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) groups that pair most favorably with an A or B Style Score. The Zacks Rank can change as earnings estimates are revised after the just-reported results.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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Salesforce, Inc. (CRM): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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