The next big evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to be agentic AI, where AI agents will go out and perform tasks on their own with little to no human supervision. The technology carries the promise of an AI agent workforce that works alongside everyday employees.
Not surprisingly, there are a multitude of companies chasing this opportunity. Two of the most intriguing ones are SoundHound AI (SOUN 5.23%) and Salesforce (CRM 0.02%). Both are coming at the technology differently, and both have something unique that helps them stand out.
Let's delve into the prospects of the two stocks to see which is the better buy.
SoundHound AI: A leader in voice-first AI agents
Over the past few years, SoundHound has established itself as a leader in AI voice technology. The company created a platform that can interact more naturally with people through its use of "speech-to-meaning" and "deep meaning understanding" technology, where it can recognize someone's intent even before they are finished speaking, much like how humans process speech. This technology by itself has found strong footholds in the auto and restaurant industries.
NASDAQ: SOUN
Key Data Points
However, SoundHound saw where the puck was moving with AI and smartly went out and acquired Amelia, which brought with it virtual agents that were being used in several industries, including highly regulated ones like healthcare and financial services. It then combined the two companies' technologies to launch a voice-first AI agent platform, and later acquired a company for workflow automation.
Today, SoundHound is looking to offer customers an end-to-end AI customer service solution that can interact with people naturally. It's just at the beginning of pursuing this opportunity, but it is a huge one. The company has already been growing rapidly before this agentic AI push, with its revenue more than doubling over the past nine months. The stock is not cheap, however, trading at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 15 times 2026 analyst revenue estimates.
Image source: Getty Images.
Salesforce: Creating a data advantage
A leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software, Salesforce's stock has come under pressure due to the belief that it is going to be one of the many software-as-a-service (SaaS) losers from AI. The risk to SaaS companies is considered twofold, as there is a thesis that AI will lead to companies being leaner, thus needing fewer seats. Meanwhile, there is also a line of thought where organizations will just "vibe code" (using natural language and AI to develop software) custom software solutions to replace incumbent vendors.
In my view, those risks look overblown. SaaS companies can change pricing models, while there is a big difference between creating a software prototype and developing a market-ready solution that can handle the security, compliance, and reliability requirements needed to run a large-scale business. Ripping out a complex piece of software ingrained throughout an organization is not an easy step.
NYSE: CRM
Key Data Points
Meanwhile, for its part, Salesforce has already started to evolve into an agentic AI platform. One of its strengths was always gathering data and breaking down departmental silos, but with the acquisition of master data management company Informatica and the launch of Data 360, Salesforce has positioned itself to be the master record of an organization's data.
While this hasn't gotten much fanfare, it's a huge move that sets the company to be an agentic AI stalwart. The reason is that it's been found that AI works best when it can draw from clean, organized data, and this is going to become even more important when dealing with AI agents, which have little human oversight.
With a forward P/S multiple of just 4.5 and a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio below 17 based on 2026 analyst estimates, the stock is inexpensive and has a big growth opportunity ahead of it.
The verdict
I personally like Salesforce between the two, given its beaten-up valuation and that I think the company has made smart moves to become an eventual agentic AI leader. However, I do think SoundHound likely has more upside potential, given its much smaller size. If its voice tech proves to be an important differentiator in the AI agent race, the sky could be the limit.
