"Artificial intelligence (AI) is saving American software companies, not killing them." The so

"Artificial intelligence (AI) is saving American software companies, not killing them."

The so-called "paradox of AI" is appearing on Wall Street and Yeouido stock markets. In early 2026, U.S. software companies' stock prices fell one after another. This was due to concerns that AI would replace existing information technology (IT) services and take away all the work of related companies by replacing software development and knowledge labor. It was the opposite of semiconductor companies, which are the core of AI infrastructure.

However, the situation has changed as AI has evolved from simple task automation to the era of 'agent' (AI secretary). In order to introduce AI assistants inside the company, they need to connect with the existing work system. Such a system is tightly held by U.S. software companies. In the end, AI does not kill existing software, but has to go back on it. Shares of the four so-called "MNCC" software heads (Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce, and CrowdStrike) have surged more than 20% side by side over the past month in August, attracting investors' attention again.

The era has come when AI handles everything on its own, but it will meet a "wall" that external AI cannot penetrate at the corporate site. It is the company's security confidential information, internal business processes, and customer relationship data accumulated over the decades. AI assistants must access such data and systems in order to carry out the commands of the 'human owner'. In the end, you have to pay Microsoft (MSFT), ServiceNow (NOW), Salesforce (CRM), and CrowdStrike (CRWD) in front of the wall to get permission to enter. As this situation is known, U.S. software stock earnings and stock prices are rebounding.

Salesforce has proven its AI paradox with its performance. It recorded sales of $11.34 billion in the second quarter of fiscal year 2027, up more than 11% year-on-year. The key to the increase in sales is the "AI agent platform" Agentforce. The platform's annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeded $1.5 billion, growing 240% during the period. ARR is the sum of the revenue that subscription-based software companies repeatedly receive from customers over a year. In other words, it is a number that converts the monthly subscription fee that customers pay every month into a year, like Netflix's monthly fee. It is an indicator that investors of software-listed companies are paying attention to.

Agent Force is an item that did not exist before 2024. It is a new source of revenue that is accumulating in the era of AI assistants. Companies that want to reduce costs and increase sales through AI are forced to subscribe to Salesforce's platform regularly. An official from a securities firm said, "Companies can build their own AI platforms, but this requires considerable cost and professional manpower, so small and medium-sized companies, not big tech, are relying on "SaaS (Software as a Service)" such as Salesforce."

Salesforce said it achieved 3.2 billion "agent work units" (the workload actually completed by AI assistants) in the second quarter of fiscal year 2027. As the workload of AI assistants increases, the structure in which sales force platform usage increases is revealed in actual numbers. Shares jumped 22.6% after the company reported such earnings on August 26.

What is more important than performance is future performance guidance. Salesforce offered between $11.42 billion and $11.5 billion in revenue guidance for the third quarter of fiscal year 2027. This is higher than Wall Street's estimate ($11.41 billion). This confidence comes from the calculation that Salesforce's repeated sales through AI are possible.

Microsoft (MS), the "manager of offices around the world," is recovering rapidly as its business feasibility is confirmed through AI. For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, revenue and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) were $901 billion and $4.74, respectively. It was a "surprise performance" that exceeded Wall Street expectations by 2.7% and 11.8%, respectively.

Microsoft's performance shows that global companies have gone from simply using AI to actually paying and distributing it to employees in earnest. The number of AI assistants 'CoPilot paid sheets' exceeded 30 million. Here, sheet 1 refers to one digit (license) of users purchased by companies so that AI can be used. Commercial Remaining Performance Obligations (RPOs), a contract balance to be recognized in the future, also hit $678 billion. RPO is the sum of future revenues that the customer has already signed and promised to pay but has not yet recognized as sales. This increase in RPO is proof that companies have several years' worth of cloud and AI subscription contracts at once. This includes AI assistant Copilot subscription ARR along with cloud sales. Copilot is incorporated into existing products such as 'Office 365' under the name of AI function. These products induce movement at a high pricing plan.

As soon as AI assistants access corporate internal systems, a new hacking channel opens up. CrowdStrike is a security infrastructure company that prevents such 'AI-induced cyber threats'. Net increase ARR surged 51% year-on-year in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, reaching an all-time high of $332.8 million. If AI detection and response (AIDR) ARR is selected separately, it has nearly tripled compared to the previous quarter. George Kurtz, CEO of the company, also showed confidence in raising annual earnings guidance, saying, "The more companies adopt AI, the more they have to buy AI-only security platforms together."

ServiceNow is an automation platform company that digitizes all business requests, approvals, and processing processes within a company. For example, ServiceNow provides a system that automatically allocates work to the right person and tracks processing status when there is a flood of work, such as reporting an IT failure, applying for vacation, or approving contracts.

Sales of $3.99 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 are up 24% in a year. This is due to a 24.5% increase in subscription sales during the same period. The annual AI contract value (ACV) exceeded $1 billion. The number of customers who are actually operating 'Ageotic AI' through Service Now has soared nine times in the last nine months. AGENTIC AI is not just AI (ChatGPT) that answers questions, but it refers to autonomously complete multi-stage tasks by setting goals and planning on one's own.

ServiceNow's remaining performance obligation (cRPO) for the next 12 months is $13.2 billion, up 21% in a year. Confidence in the increase in long-term contracts raised its annual subscription sales guidance to $15.76 billion to $15.78 billion. MS's expected price-to-earnings ratio (PER) rose to 25.64 times at the end of fiscal year 2027 as its stock price rebounded. As of the past year, the PER was 16.59 times.

For Salesforce, the PER rose from 9.2 to 15.39 times on the same basis. This means that the stock price is rising faster than the rate of earnings growth. ServiceNow has an estimated PER of 36.25 times overvalued and CrowdStrike is classified as an ultra-high-risk stock over 184 times.