7 companies building leading AI agents

These firms have strong businesses and are using "agentic AI" to better serve customers.

  • By Jeff Reeves,
  • U.S. News & World Report
  • – 02/07/2025
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Investors have been agog over the last year or two about the potential of artificial intelligence. Hardware stocks like Nvidia Corp. (ticker:

) were red hot, and firms like Meta Platforms Inc. (
) were eager to tout how sophisticated their own internal models were.

In early 2025, however, an open-source model called DeepSeek upended some of this optimism thanks to readily available models, a lack of proprietary or fee-based access, and a lighter touch that could reduce the previously expected demand for power and processing power in AI applications.

While this has certainly been disruptive to some of last year's AI high-fliers, it doesn't change the plans at all for AI agents.

AI agents are autonomous AI programs that can observe and receive input, make decisions and follow up by taking action and refine its decision model, or "learn", from its actions. An AI agent could teach a smart home system to better regulate energy usage or continue improving a business' logistics system.

These companies are not involved in complex hardware or high-level algorithms that can be flexible for any application, but rather are specialists that are thinking about machine learning in focused contexts to serve a discrete client base.

The following seven stocks may not immediately jump out as AI leaders. However, they are definitely leaders in their categories and using artificial intelligence to solve customer problems – making them leading AI agents to watch in 2025 and beyond:

  • Adobe Inc. (
    )
  • Automatic Data Processing Inc. (
    )
  • GitLab Inc. (
    )
  • Palo Alto Networks Inc. (
    )
  • Salesforce Inc. (
    )
  • ServiceNow Inc. (
    )
  • Zillow Group Inc. (
    ,
    )

Adobe Inc. (ADBE)

AI business impact: Marketing and creative services

Creative software and services firm Adobe has long been the go-to platform for photographers, videographers, publishers and just about anyone who tells a story with more than just words. With loyal customers and long-term certainty thanks to subscription-based revenue rather than one-off product sales, ADBE has a reliable current revenue stream. And with new generative AI functionality that fills in the blanks automatically, it is streamlining the process of how creative documents move from ideas into reality.

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP)

AI business impact: Payroll and accounting

ADP has evolved with the modern workplace, first by moving beyond traditional paper check payroll and accounting services into a digital age with cloud-based solutions for its clients. The firm has become a one-stop human resources, accounting and employer services firm that is increasingly deploying artificial intelligence in areas ranging from benefits administration to time and attendance reporting to recruiting and retaining employees. With the ADP Assist model, the company is deploying agentic AI to analyze HR data and provide insights on payroll, identify anomalies and predict workforce trends.

Founded back in 1949, ADP has learned a lot about how to stay relevant in a changing workplace. Its continued development of artificial intelligence solutions makes it among the leading developers of agentic AI on Wall Street right now.

GitLab Inc. (GTLB)

AI business impact: Coding and software development

It is a common practice in the computer programming biz to build something through digital collaboration – or more specifically, Googling for an existing code solution or watching a YouTube video that gives you tips. Well, if the information is already out there, then why not have an artificial intelligence algorithm do the copy/pasting for you rather than having programmers sift through lines of code manually? That's the idea behind AI agent GitLab, which offers a DevOps platform that helps organizations plan, build and deploy software of all shapes and sizes. With the internet now more than 40 years old and many businesses tailoring their digital workflows and e-commerce solutions around existing platforms, AI and automation in the programming process is the natural next-step.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW)

Business impact: Cybersecurity

In an age of chronic hacking concerns, $130 billion 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 Southwest Airlines Co. (

) and Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands Inc. (
) to name a few. The way PANW keeps those clients safe isn't a rigid system of firewalls or old school virus protection, however, and instead involves evaluating a tremendous amount of network data to see how staff and customers are logging on, where traffic is coming from and the devices being used for tasks. In a digital age where things move in nanoseconds, it's impossible to rely on a human security expert to identify trends quickly – which makes PANW an idea AI agent stock to consider if you don't want to play the hardware side of the artificial intelligence revolution.

Salesforce Inc. (CRM)

Business impact: Sales and customer retention

One of the 30 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, the popular acronym that also makes up its ticker symbol. 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. Its proven success in automating sales processes helps make CRM a go-to AI agent stock to consider investing in.

ServiceNow Inc. (NOW)

Business impact: Customer service

ServiceNow is a specialist in workflow automation, with a client list that includes mega-corporations like Amazon.com Inc. (

) and Walmart Inc. (
). It is particularly relevant as an AI play in the area of customer service, where next-gen artificial intelligence algorithms help manage everything from internal IT help desk requests to customer complaints to employee training. While there is definitely something to be said for a human touch, certain rote tasks like resetting a password should definitely be handled by AI in the 21st century rather than a dedicated employee. NOW is focused on identifying those areas to improve responsiveness for customers and cut down on overhead for businesses through responsible artificial intelligence deployments.

Zillow Group Inc. (Z, ZG)

Business impact: Real estate sales and data

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 business. AI features prominently in both of these workstreams, 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 markets, 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.

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