US broker argues AI tools will complement existing software stacks rather than displace them
Fears that Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude assistant, and rival OpenAI could disrupt the established enterprise software industry are overblown, according to Wedbush Securities, the US investment bank.
Following industry checks across the AI sector over recent weeks, Wedbush said the sell-off in software stocks had gone too far and that current valuations failed to reflect how actively companies were integrating AI across their technology stacks.
The broker acknowledged that investor anxiety was running high, with many market participants worried that Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI developers would pivot toward becoming the next layer of enterprise software infrastructure, effectively competing with the platforms their models currently sit on top of.
Wedbush pushed back on that scenario, describing it as a stretch given that AI developers remain firmly focused on generating revenue from AI workflows rather than building out the broader organisational software that underpins corporate operations.
The more likely outcome, it argued, was that large language models (LLMs) and AI systems would work alongside employees to drive productivity gains and cut operational costs, complementing rather than replacing existing software.
That view has significant implications for the sector's major players, who have spent the better part of two decades embedding their products deeply into corporate workflows.
Wedbush framed the central question for those companies not as survival, but as speed: how quickly can they build out so-called agentic workforces and weave AI capabilities into the everyday processes their clients already depend on.
The note will offer some reassurance to investors in software infrastructure stocks, which have come under sustained pressure as markets attempt to price the consequences of rapid AI adoption.