Microsoft, Salesforce among AI agent winners as spending may hit $155B by 2030: BofA

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) and Intuit (INTU) are expected to be among the top beneficiaries of artificial intelligence agent spending, as Bank of America believes the market could hit $155B by 2030.

“We estimate global knowledge worker wages across seven major occupation categories (such as sales, finance and IT) are $18.6 trillion annually,” Bank of America analysts wrote in a note to clients. “We believe it is reasonable to assume 10% of workflows for this cohort of employees will be performed by agents by 2030, representing $1.9 trillion in automation-driven value. Assuming software vendors can capture roughly 8% of this value (representing 12x customer ROI on agentic spending), this would equate to global agentic AI spending of $155 billion.”

There are a variety of agentic architectures and processes, including: large datasets; “robust” data security and governance capabilities; the ability to use first and third-party models; and a “robust” workflow orchestration engine.

As such, Microsoft should benefit via its Microsoft 365 product cycle and its Azure partnership with OpenAI. In addition, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Intuit, HubSpot (HUBS), GitLab (GTLB), and OneStream (OS) should also benefit, via their respective, Agentforce, Now Assist, Intuit Assist, Breeze AI, Duo and SensibleAI platforms and services, Bank of America analysts added.

“These firms possess the key ingredients for AI success and monetization: large customer dataset, and robust data management/governance capabilities,” the analysts posited. “These companies also have agentic AI features/products available today, either publicly or in beta. We expect monetization to begin ramping in CY26.”