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The software-as-a-service (SaaS) sell-off or SaaS-pocalypse, as it’s commonly referred to, has been a major story this year. Even as investors become more comfortable with taking on risk after the latest drop in oil prices and a de-escalation in the Middle East, the SaaS stocks might not be able to participate in the market-wide bounce-back. In fact, on Wednesday’s session, several SaaS plays sank to new 52-week lows.
Of course, AI is a real threat to a lot of software business models, but, in prior piece, I highlighted that it was wrong for the market to punish some names, from the cybersecurity plays like CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) to the AI infrastructure companies like Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) and even the credit-rating plays like Moody’s (NYSE:MCO). Just because there’s software involved doesn’t mean a firm is on its way out, as agentic AI has arrived, eager to disrupt across all corners of the market.
The SaaS sell-off might not be over, but look for cybersecurity names to move their own way
That’s not to say that much of SaaS won’t be at risk of further downside. Some of the SaaS names deserve to take a hit on the chin. And the big drops of 50% or more might actually be the start of a steeper crash, even as some SaaS firms don’t hesitate to repurchase their own shares. Buybacks, especially on dips, can signal confidence, but in the face of profound technological disruptors, I do think it’s very risky to follow the buybacks, especially if a firm’s model is at risk in the hands of a new AI tool.
To put it simply, agentic AI and tools like Claude Code have lowered the barriers to entry in software development. And, believe it not, the barriers could fall much further, especially as the AI titans narrow their focus from broad benchmarks to coding.
Indeed, if you can score the best coding score, the other metrics may not matter as much as AI firms look to race towards recursive self-improvement, a concept that sees AI updating itself. Whether escape velocity can be reached, though, remains the big question. Any way you look at it, the clock is ticking for the SaaS firms that aren’t well-equipped to navigate what’s sure to be a painful transition.
The case for a swift rebound in the cybersecurity stocks
It’s tough to know where enterprise software goes from here. In any case, cybersecurity stocks might be one of the areas of software that hit new highs the fastest.
As some SaaS stocks dip to new lows, CrowdStrike seems to be on its way back to prior highs. The stock is now up close to 22% from its February 2026 lows, and with a potential double-top technical pattern in the works, it might not take too long before the name is back above $500 per share.
Anthropic, the AI innovator that helped kick off the fearful selling across software with tools such as Claude Code and Cowork, is teaming up with cybersecurity firms, including CrowdStrike and a slew of other tech firms, for work on Project Glasswing.
Indeed, the AI cyberthreats are very real and incredibly dangerous in the age of Claude Mythos, a powerful AI model that can reportedly find major vulnerabilities in software. In the wrong hands, such a powerful AI could take cyberthreats to the next level and, with that, the biggest tech titans in the field will need to join forces to keep such threats at bay.
The bottom line
In the age of Claude Mythos and new-age cyberthreats, I think the need for agent-powered cybersecurity defenses is going to reach an all-time high.
Cybersecurity platforms are far from being obsolete at the hands of these new models. If anything, CrowdStrike and its own agentic expertise are valuable soldiers as the good guys team up to keep the world safe from threats that are too dangerous to be complacent about. With CrowdStrike stock winning a pair of buy ratings, I think it’s time to bottom-fish in the name while shares are still down around 24%. It’s one of the few AI-driven software plays worth braving on the dip.
