Recently, the AI sector has been flooded with good news: NVIDIA Corporation(NVDA.US) delivered an earnings report that exceeded expectations, AI investment continues to grow robustly, and the demand for AI is pushing the U.S. power infrastructure to its limits, prompting tech giants to vie for nuclear power.

In the AI realm, as foundational technologies mature, "Agent" is becoming a buzzword.

An "Agent" (intelligent agent) is a key concept in artificial intelligence and computer science, referring to software or systems capable of autonomously perceiving their environment and making decisions to achieve specific goals. Agents can have varying functions and characteristics depending on their design and application scenarios.

Agents are widely used across various fields. For example, intelligent assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa can understand natural language commands and provide corresponding services.

Tianfeng Securities predicts that by 2025, foundational models represented by Deepseek will rapidly enhance capabilities in reinforcement learning and reasoning, driving Agents from prompt-based to expert-based, potentially marking 2025-2026 as the commercial launch period for Agents.

In fact, 2025 is seen as the inaugural year for AI Agent commercialization, with expanding application scenarios from office Agents to vertical-specific Agents and broader industry applications.

Recently, Morgan Stanley released a comprehensive report titled "AI Agents Knocking at the Door," suggesting that AI Agents are becoming the next major evolutionary direction in the software industry, fundamentally transforming software development and business process execution.

Morgan Stanley believes the Agentic AI market holds vast potential, currently representing a $52 billion opportunity, expected to grow to $102 billion by 2028.

Which Companies Stand to Benefit?

Morgan Stanley categorizes software companies into three groups based on their ability to seize Agent opportunities: 1) Agent Beneficiaries, 2) Agent Competitors, and 3) Agent Unknowns.

Agent Beneficiaries: Companies we are confident can meet either of the following criteria:

a) Directly monetize through AI agents/agent architecture currently or shortly, becoming a key growth driver.

b) The core business will substantially benefit from the adoption of agent technology.

Agent Competitors: Companies in advantageous tracks but require high execution levels and market maturity to realize benefits (conditions not fully met yet).

Agent Unknowns: Controversial companies—adoption of agent technology may boost growth or disrupt their core business.

Companies Expected to Benefit

Morgan Stanley identifies the following companies as potential beneficiaries:

• Hyperscale Enterprises: Microsoft Corporation(MSFT.US), Amazon.com, Inc.(AMZN.US) AWS, Alphabet Inc. Class A(GOOGL.US) Google Cloud
• Model Providers: OpenAI, Anthropic
• Cybersecurity: CyberArk Software Ltd.(CYBR.US), SailPoint, Inc.(SAIL.US), Okta(OKTA.US), Cloudflare(NET.US)
• Data Vendors: Snowflake(SNOW.US), Palantir(PLTR.US)
• Workflow Automation: ServiceNow, Inc.(NOW.US), Atlassian Corp. Plc Class A(TEAM.US)
• SaaS Platforms: Salesforce.com, inc.(CRM.US), HubSpot, Inc.(HUBS.US), OneStream, Inc.(OS.US)