Hardware stocks like chipmaker Nvidia Corp. (ticker: NVDA) or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSM) tend to be the first stop for investors looking to play the artificial intelligence revolution. But AI agents are a critical part of this megatrend, too, and can provide an indirect but equally powerful way to gain exposure.
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An AI agent is an autonomous system that doesn’t need human intervention to make decisions or perform tasks, adapting to new information independently as it flows into the system. In other words, an AI agent is software that brings the promise of artificial intelligence into reality — not the high-tech hardware that provides the back-end computing power.
As such, the following seven stocks may not all be intuitive AI stock investments. However, all are technology-dependent companies that are natural fits for successful AI agents in pursuit of efficiency and profitability in the years ahead:
| Agentic AI Stock | AI Business Impact | Forward Price-Earnings Ratio* |
| Adobe Inc. (ADBE) | Marketing and creative services | 20.4 |
| Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) | E-commerce and logistics | 34.3 |
| Meta Platforms Inc. (META) | Communications and marketing | 27.3 |
| Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) | Office productivity | 31.3 |
| Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) | Cybersecurity | 27.5 |
| Salesforce Inc. (CRM) | Sales and customer retention | 24.0 |
| Zillow Group Inc. (Z, ZG) | Real estate sales and rentals | 36.2 |
*The forward price-earnings ratio as of June 4 close.
Adobe Inc. (ADBE)
AI business impact: Marketing and creative services
Anyone who has made the rounds on social media lately knows that AI generated images abound — from humorously absurd creations on one end to nefarious “deepfakes” on the other. So it’s no surprise that creative software and services firm Adobe is at the center of the artificial intelligence megatrend with AI agent investments that continue to pay off for its customers.
The company’s generative AI functionality, Firefly, can fill in the blanks automatically with material when prompted, or even create images from scratch with just a few suggestions from users. ADBE is streamlining the process of how creative documents move from ideas into reality, which is sure to further elevate this brand that is already well respected by designers and marketers around the world.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
AI business impact: E-commerce and logistics
Amazon’s voice-activated assistant, Alexa, is a household name and an obvious spokesbot for AI. However, Amazon is now leveraging artificial intelligence agents within its business in many ways beyond the prominent voice assistant. From suggested add-ons to the millions of Amazon.com shoppers on its website to enabling efficient logistics across its worldwide supply chains to customer service chatbots that resolve issues without the need for human helpdesk employees, applications of agent AI in Amazon workflows are fundamental to this trillion-dollar tech stock’s success.
Meta Platforms Inc. (META)
AI business impact: Communications and marketing
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta uses AI agents in various ways, most notably through its tools that offer ad creation and targeting with minimal effort from human marketers. It also has long used AI for content moderation, and it has taken steps to use artificial intelligence to enhance user experiences on its various platforms.
As a communications services firm that is one of the world’s largest content platforms, the artificial intelligence agents that help Meta stay lean and efficient are a critical component of its business. And while it’s admittedly a bit creepy that founder Mark Zuckerberg has made public statements hinting that AI bots have the potential to replace real-world human relationships, the fact remains that the commercial applications of AI agents are driving serious results within Meta.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
AI business impact: Office productivity
Microsoft and OpenAI have a significant partnership, which started when the tech titan hired the ChatGPT parent’s former CEO Sam Altman and its president Greg Brockman back in 2023. Microsoft is a major investor in OpenAI and uses its artificial intelligence models in its Azure Foundry, Bing search results and its onboard Copilot functionality in office productivity software offerings. With a massive scale and entrenched user base, MSFT is well positioned to capitalize on the promise of AI by leveraging the technology in its existing suite of products.
Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW)
AI business impact: Cybersecurity
In an age of chronic hacking concerns, $130 billion cybersecurity leader Palo Alto stands out as a company that has what it takes to protect its customers now and in the years to come. Its world-class clientele includes home security firm ADT Inc. (ADT), mall operator Westfield and academic leaders like the University of Michigan.
The way PANW keeps those clients safe isn’t a rigid system of firewalls or “white hat” hackers sitting in front of screens, but rather the evaluation of a tremendous amount of network data in real time. With such a volume of information, it’s critical for PANW to have AI agent technology that can keep things safe and efficient for all the firm’s customers — particularly in the area of cybersecurity, where one missed signal could cripple a business.
Salesforce Inc. (CRM)
AI business impact: Sales and customer retention
One of the 40 largest publicly traded corporations in the U.S., Salesforce has made a name for itself by revolutionizing how businesses approach customer relationship management, or CRM. In a nutshell, CRM involves logging every interaction with a potential or current customer to ensure you maximize the revenue potential of that relationship.
It’s only natural that Salesforce has steadily evolved beyond just maintaining databases and templates and now uses artificial intelligence to identify the best prospects and the most at-risk clients, and it’s equally natural that companies are eager to spend on an AI platform in this area because the results can literally pay for themselves. As an added bonus, when times get tough, this kind of strategic focus on customer retention through AI is critical to keeping small- and medium-sized businesses afloat, meaning Salesforce subscriptions are one item that businesses can’t afford to cut even during a downturn.
AI business impact: Real estate sales and rentals
One of the most prominent disruptors of traditional real estate sales that depend on a human agent acting as the gatekeeper to property listings, Zillow is a go-to resource for house hunters. It’s increasingly a resource for those who are simply curious about data for their neighborhoods, as well as a platform for independent real estate agents to build their businesses. AI features prominently in both of these applications, including powering estimated values for unlisted homes as well as tools that automatically create listings for properties and bios for budding agents.
Considering the wealth of data that exists in the real estate market, it’s an industry ripe for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. As one of the first-movers in digital real estate listings, Zillow is aggressively chasing this long-term growth potential in the industry though AI agent technology.
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7 Best Agentic AI Stocks originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 06/05/25: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
