💼🚀Underestimated and Underpriced: The AI Winners You’re Missing
AI Gold Rush? Yes. But the Real Money Is Still Waiting to Be Found.
The spotlight has been blinding: Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, and AMD are the headliners in this AI bull cycle — and rightfully so. But in the shadows, away from the wild valuations and meme-fueled chatter, a quieter group of companies is positioning itself for something far more enduring: profitable, scaled growth from real-world AI deployment.
These aren’t stock riding hype. These are operating machines with durable fundamentals, proven monetization strategies, and clear roads to cash flow expansion.
Not all of them have “AI” in bold on their investor decks — and that’s precisely why they’ve been left behind in the recent rally. But that lag creates opportunity. These businesses are already printing cash, growing steadily, and integrating AI in ways that will unlock massive shareholder value over time — whether Wall Street is paying attention yet or not.
Let’s break down four such companies — Workday, Salesforce, GitLab, and Adobe — and why they’re not just “AI adjacent,” but critical to the infrastructure and monetization layer of the next wave of intelligent software.
Workday — Not Flashy, Just Financially Ferocious
Ticker: WDAY
Market Cap: $64.5B
YTD Performance: Down ~4%
Free Cash Flow Margin: ~27%
Workday doesn’t fit the mold of a typical AI darling — and that’s a good thing. What it lacks in hype, it makes up for in operational clarity and margin-rich scale.
Workday builds enterprise cloud software that CFOs and HR leaders rely on for mission-critical planning, analytics, and execution. This isn’t optional software. It’s baked into how Fortune 500 companies run. With 11,000+ global clients, including 60% of the Fortune 500, and operations in 175+ countries, the company’s footprint is as wide as it is deep.
Key growth drivers:
- Subscription revenue (its core business) is growing at 15.5% YoY, now exceeding $7.96B over the trailing 12 months.
- Free cash flow is up 23% in the latest quarter to $457M.
- A $1B buyback has been authorized, showing confidence in long-term value.
Margins are not only stable — they’re expanding. Gross margins hover above 75%, and free cash flow margins remain above 26% consistently. And unlike many “growth” names, Workday is already doing the hard part: compounding cash profits while quietly embedding more AI features into its ecosystem.
This is the kind of company that won’t 10x your portfolio overnight — but it has every reason to outperform the broader market year after year. It's the engineer’s bet in an AI-fueled world.
Salesforce — Agentic AI Is Its Reacceleration Moment
Ticker: CRM
Market Cap: $240B
YTD Performance: Down ~16%
Operating Margin: 20.5%
Salesforce might seem like yesterday’s news — but beneath the surface, it’s rewriting its growth story through agentic AI. Quietly, Salesforce has been stacking deals around its Agent Force platform, with 8,000+ customer wins already. Its Data Cloud has crossed the $1B annual recurring revenue mark. These aren’t beta tests — they’re monetized, scaled AI deployments.
Yet the market hasn't fully recognized it. Despite 3-year gains of nearly 50%, the stock is down year-to-date and trades at a forward P/E of just 23, extremely reasonable for a company with these economics:
- Gross margin: 77.3%
- Free cash flow expected to grow at 12%+ over the next two fiscal years
- Operating margins have flipped from low single digits to 20.5% — a dramatic and rare transformation for an enterprise SaaS player
Salesforce isn’t in high-growth mode anymore — but it doesn’t need to be. As it continues to evolve into a cash machine with better efficiency and consistent AI-driven revenue, the reward will come from multiple expansion and free cash flow compounding.
Agentic AI is not a buzzword for CRM — it's a second wind. And it’s closer than most realize, with its impact expected to materialize fully by fiscal 2027 (mid-2026 calendar year).
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GitLab — The Underrated Backbone of AI-Driven DevOps
Ticker: GTLB
Market Cap: $7.9B
Current Drawdown: ~34%
Dollar-Based Net Retention: 122%
AI hasn’t killed GitLab — that’s just narrative. And that narrative is where the opportunity lies.
GitLab is quietly becoming a foundational tool in modern AI-powered development workflows. Ranked #4 most-used DevSecOps platform behind hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, GitLab’s footprint is growing fast — especially in Europe, which management sees as a key expansion vector.
Yes, the company has yet to scale profitably, but here’s the key: they’re about to.
- Free cash flow is expected to reach $317M by fiscal 2028
- Gross margins already stable in the 85–87% range
- ARR growth of 25.7% for customers paying over $100K
- Subscription revenue growing nearly 29% YoY
This isn’t a company being made obsolete by AI. If anything, AI is expanding the number of developers, not shrinking it — and GitLab is positioned to monetize that expansion.
Yes, volatility comes with the territory. But with analysts’ price targets far above current levels, and revenue growth that’s not just intact but accelerating, GitLab looks more like a comeback story than a cautionary tale.
Adobe — Not Disrupted, Just Discounted
Ticker: ADBE
Market Cap: $157B
YTD Performance: Down ~15%
Free Cash Flow Margin: 42–43%
There’s a narrative that AI will “replace” Adobe. The reality? Adobe is already using AI — and monetizing it. The company’s flagship Firefly engine, integrated across Creative Cloud, is already on track to beat its $250M AI ARR target this year — a small number, yes, but it signals a bigger shift.
Adobe isn’t dying — it’s just misunderstood.
- Digital Media ARR continues to climb each quarter
- Free cash flow is expected to grow faster than revenue over the next 3 years
- Gross and free cash flow margins remain elite — among the highest in large-cap software
The stock now trades at a forward P/E of 17, the lowest in over a decade. And it’s still growing revenue close to 10% with EPS expansion above that.
And let’s not forget Figma. The once-scrapped $20B acquisition target may soon IPO at a $16B valuation. That move alone could reignite Adobe’s multiple, especially if Adobe’s own AI suite starts getting broader traction.
Adobe isn’t a growth rocket — it’s a free cash flow juggernaut. And in an AI-driven world where trust, creative dominance, and integrated tools matter, it’s still king.
📌 Final Thoughts
Not every AI stock needs to shout about AI. The most reliable opportunities are often those building quietly, executing methodically, and compounding cash invisibly.
For investors who can tune out the hype, resist the temptation to chase momentum, and look for operating leverage in real businesses, these four names — Workday, Salesforce, GitLab, and Adobe — are not just relevant. They’re ready.
The AI race has already created a few trillion-dollar winners.
But the next round — the one focused on infrastructure, monetization, and application — is being built right now.
And it's still early.
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