May 27 (Reuters) – Salesforce forecast second-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday amid ongoing concerns that AI rivals such as Anthropic could rapidly disrupt demand for traditional software vendors.
Like its peers, Salesforce is contending with growing investor concerns that AI tools could pull enterprise clients away from traditional software by taking over tasks once done by their products. Its shares fell 3% in extended trading.
Advanced coding tools by Anthropic and OpenAI have contributed to a recent selloff in software stocks, ushering in what Wall Street is calling a “SaaSpocalypse” — a term reflecting the gloom around software-as-a-service companies.
The business software provider expects second-quarter revenue to be between $11.27 billion and $11.35 billion, below analysts’ average estimate of $11.36 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Salesforce reported revenue of $11.13 billion for the first quarter ended April 30, compared with the estimate of $11.05 billion.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
