It was a nasty year for the software stocks in 2025, as investors pondered the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence (AI). With shares of enterprise software and AI agent innovator Salesforce ( NYSE:CRM) and creative software titan Adobe ( NASDAQ:ADBE) starting off the very first trading day of the year with a steep decline, it feels like all hope is lost for 2026, as the ailing software plays come in limping to kick off 2026.
Shares of Carvana ( NYSE:CVNA) trade near $460 today, and amazing rally from just $309 a share on November 21st. Despite the run, retail investors across Reddit and X aren't convinced. It's not just Carvana either, retail investors seem uniformly very bearish of the space. CarGurus ( NASDAQ:CARG) and Cars.com ( NYSE:CARS) face identical bearish sentiment scores of 8 to 12 out of 100. Those are among the lowest scores we currently track on 24/7 Wall St and are specific to this subsector.
For months, she had been fighting fires and chasing one AI update after another, rewriting roadmaps every week as new tools arrived. That same morning, she had stepped out of a call where the CFO confirmed that a restructuring would almost certainly eliminate many of her team members' roles. Minutes later, one of her direct reports had asked her, "Am I going to have a job in six months?"
As 2026 approaches, the landscape for entrepreneurs is shifting fast, defined by AI disruption, rising costs, cautious investors and more demanding customers. Yet for British entrepreneur and investor Matt Haycox, the fundamentals of building a strong business remain the same: clarity, cash flow and character. 'Trends change every year,' he says. 'Principles don't. If you can manage money, manage people and keep promises, you'll still win, whether it's 2006 or 2026.'
Professional services-lawyers, accountants, management consultants like myself-the ones who actually process, analyze, and deal with a lot of data, those are the skills that can be replaced by AI and agentic AI," said Anne Lim O'Brien, vice chair, partner, and global co-leader of the consumer products sector at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.
'If you don't speak, someone will speak on your behalf.' It's a maxim that Tim Delaney holds close and one that I hear regularly from him. It is, naturally, a point well made. All brands should aim to be part of 'the conversation'. But in today's fragmented media landscape, simply speaking up is not enough to guarantee being heard. So, what's your strategy to get heard?
As hype around generative AI continues to rattle the software sector, more specialized software companies may be among the most resilient players and the most underappreciated. RBC Capital Markets wrote on Wednesday that vertical software - tools specifically designed for industries such as healthcare, insurance, and industrial design - could weather AI disruption in the near term and benefit from it in the long run.
I've always had an analytical streak, some might call it a blessing, others a curse that constantly scans for opportunities to improve how we work. Whether it's a project, product, or process, I'm wired to evaluate the good, the bad, and the ugly in search of ways to make things better. We all have blind spots, and my goal is to minimize them through continuous reflection, open dialogue, and a willingness to challenge the status quo.
The attitude that you bring to the office-and to your employees, your peers, and the people you serve alongside every day-is what ultimately will determine a lot of your success,
Agencies are being rocked by the rise of AI. The solution? Bring on more humans. No, seriously. On Tuesday, digital agency Incubeta announced its acquisition of RocketSource, a consultancy that helps advertisers understand what drives customer behavior using data science and predictive analytics. The price of the deal was not disclosed. The traditional agency business model is falling apart, according to Alex Langshur, CEO of Incubeta in the Americas, because its cost structure is being "obliterated" by AI.
He predicted software would take over large swaths of the economy, and that's exactly what happened. Books became software, and Amazon beat Barnes & Noble. Movies became software, and Netflix won. Music became software, and Spotify rules over labels. Now, we've entered a new era in which some software companies could be eaten by AI. This technology makes it easier to use and create new software, challenging established SaaS providers and upending business models.
At first, I took things a bit personally, but then when I connected with other fellow agency owners and consultants, I noticed that many of them were going through the same thing at some level, at least on the marketing side.The truth is that we're at an inflection point. The forces reinventing marketing are not merely external; they're structural. Economic shifts are the main driver, but also AI disruptions, talent trends and evolving client expectations are fundamentally altering the way value is delivered.
More recently, I introduced the Enron documentary to my daughter, and I was shocked all over again by how much that company wooed Wall Street while pursuing wild, expensive infrastructure projects. These two threads just came together in the form of a fascinating interview I just spotted: The Institute for New Economic Thinking scored an interview with famed short seller Jim Chanos recently.
