Barrons Magazine – March 09 2026 – Barrons Magazine

Salesforce Stock Might Not Be an AI Loser After All usiness customers have been slow to adopt artificial-intel- ligence tools in a sys- tematic way, but some of that conser- vatism is beginning to fade. At Salesforce—one of the few software companies willing to open up about its AI business—core AI revenue is small but rising quickly.

Salesforce’s AI momentum could come as a surprise to investors, who have been dumping software stocks for much of the year. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector exchange-traded fund is down 17% on the year. A narrative has arisen that AI will badly disrupt software, and that some of these companies, even ones that are thriving now, won’t make it out alive.

AI agents are the focus of the wor- ries. Agents are software that can use an AI language model to accomplish a complex series of tasks in much the same way a human worker would. They are still at an early stage, but, projecting forward, one can imagine a world in which a large portion of knowledge work is being done by machines, not people. And these ma- chines may not need software in the way we think of it today. The two primary sources of wor- ries come from AI start-ups OpenAI and Anthropic, especially the latter.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s general purpose chatbot, had a head start and is more popular with consumers, so An- thropic has focused its attention on software developers and business customers. Its two agentic products for those markets are called Claude Code and Claude Cowork. In late January, Anthropic released Cowork tools for specific enterprise functions like finance and legal. Soft- ware stocks tumbled in the wake of those launches. But neither company has experience in selling to enter- prises, and we can infer from some of their statements that it’s slower going than they’d like.

“The limiting factor for seeing value from AI in enterprises isn’t model intelligence, it’s how agents are built and run in their organizations,” began a Feb. 23 press release from OpenAI announcing a new partner- ship with IT consultants. OpenAI needs their expertise to sell and im- plement AI in enterprise markets. Anthropic was even more blunt in a business-focused presentation last month.

“2025 was meant to be the year where AI agents transformed the enterprise. But the hype turned out to be mostly premature. Many pilots started and many failed,” Kate Jensen, Anthropic’s head of Ameri- cas, said in a livestream. “There was a growing sense that the technology was moving faster than the ability to actually deploy it well.

It wasn’t a failure of effort, it was a failure of approach.” It turns out the approach can’t simply cut out existing software mak- ers and their tightknit relationships with business customers.

© 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Our newspapers are 100% sourced from sustainable certified mills. BARRON’S (USPS 044-700) (ISSN 1077-8039) Published every Monday. Editorial and Publication Headquarters: 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10036. Periodicals postage paid at Chicopee, MA and other mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Barron’s, 200 Burnett Rd., Chicopee, MA 01020 CONTENTS 03.09.26 VOL.CVI NO.10 Index P.4 Review&Preview P.7 InsideScoop P.33 13Ds P.33 Winners&Losers P.34 MarketView P.35 MarketData P.36 Mailbag P.55 Cover Images via AP Images P. 14 12 Ideas for a Small-Cap Revival The small-cap universe is packed with high-quality companies trading at reasonable valuations.

Here are four funds and eight stocks that look tempting. By IAN SALISBURY P. 21 The Bread and Butter of Fast-Food Chains Starbucks, McDonald’s, Chipotle, and other outlets have learned the value of robust rewards programs. By EVIE LIU P. 26 A Properly Constructed Infrastructure Portfolio Q&A: I Squared’s Sadek Wahba uses his private-equity firm to promote economic development around the world.

The double- digit returns don’t hurt, either. By AMEY STONE P. 6 Up & Down Wall Street: The Mag 7 Era Ends Places to park your cash now. By ANDY SERWER P. 22 Funds: Where to Find International Bargains Top holdings of a winning fund. By LEWIS BRAHAM P. 23 Income: Seeking Safety in Staples Stocks By LAWRENCE C. STRAUSS RETIREMENT P. 18 Maximize the Savings on Your Prescriptions Tips and tricks for finding the best deals—and avoiding common mistakes.

By ELIZABETH O’BRIEN P. 55 Tax-Efficient Ways to Take Your RMDs How to reduce the tax impact of required minimum distributions. By KAREN HUBE 6 DEFENSE STOCKS THAT STAND TO GAIN • PAGE 11 FORTHE MARKET WHAT IRAN REALLY MEANS The war could heat up inflation and reshuffle stocks. Investing moves to consider. PAGE 8 VOL. CVI NO. 10 MARCH 9, 2026 $5.00 P. 24 Economy: Fed Rate Cuts Are More Likely By MEGAN LEONHARDT P. 25 Tech Trader: Salesforce Taps the Power of AI By ADAM LEVINE P. 28 Trader: The Threat of Stagflation Looms Getting the stock market back on track won’t be easy.

By MARTIN BACCARDAX P. 32 Striking Price: How to Profit From a Crisis By STEVEN M. SEARS P. 54 A New Twist for U.S.- China Relations Other Voices: The Iran conflict introduces new variables on the eve of April’s tariff and trade talks. By DIANA CHOYLEVA Barron’s Roundtable on Fox Business Watch our TV show Fridays at 7:30 p.m. ET and Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Illustration by Barron’s; Dreamstime (2) COVER STORY P. 8 The Financial Fallout From the Iran War Advice for investors in the wake of Operation Epic Fury—and what to watch out for on the interest-rate, federal deficit, and inflation fronts.

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