Early in 2026, markets saw software stocks as among the biggest losers from AI adoption. The advent of “vibe coding" largely drove this, as it significantly increased software development productivity. This led to fears that traditional software companies would face intense competition going forward, eroding their businesses.
While this claim is neither entirely correct nor entirely incorrect, many key software companies are demonstrating their ability to benefit from enterprise AI adoption rather than suffer from it. Several have rebounded sharply as investors reassess those risks.