By Adam Clark

Software stocks have been the principal victim of the growth of artificial intelligence. That could be an opportunity to benefit from an eventual rebound and Wix.com, Veeva Systems, Guidewire Software, HubSpot and Shopify are the best plays on such a move, according to Oppenheimer analysts.

Software can't seem to win on either side of the AI 'bubble' debate. Either AI is a bubble and therefore spending on the technology is being wasted, or it truly is a game-changing technology and traditional software applications will be replaced by AI-driven capabilities.

Either way it hasn't been good for the sector but that could be set to change this year.

"While the current software investor mindset is to only see risk, we expect interest to gravitate towards companies that consistently beat and raise," wrote Oppenheimer analyst Ken Wong in a research note.

Website building company Wix and customer-relationship platform HubSpot are two companies squarely in the "hit by AI" camp. Wix is down more than 50% over the past 12 months, while HubSpot has fallen more than 40%. But Wix enters Oppenheimer's list as the single best idea in the sector for 2026.

Wix reported consensus-beating revenue of $505.2 million in its most recent quarterly results, up 14% from the same quarter the previous year. But its stock tumbled as investors took fright at heavy spending on its Base44 AI-coding product and its effect on operating cash flow.

Wong argues the bad news for Wix is now out the way.

"Wix complements a durable web authoring platform that compounds free cash flow with [a] hyper-growth AI vibe-coding business that potentially doubles the total addressable market," wrote Wong.

When it comes to customer-relationship software, Barron's recently argued sector giant Salesforce looked like a bargain after being knocked down by AI fears. But Wong opts for rival HubSpot, arguing it could exceed consensus expectations for 16% growth in its fiscal year 2026.

"No company in our coverage de-rated more aggressively than HubSpot, positioning shares as the most likely bounceback candidate should interest in software turn favorable," Wong wrote.

Veeva and Guidewire -- which make software for the life-sciences and insurance businesses, respectively -- aren't quite such contrarian picks, having both recorded gains over the past 12 months.

But Wong argues Veeva was harshly punished by concerns about competition from Salesforce, which should be soothed by a midteens growth and an expanding margin, while Guidewire hasn't been rewarded enough for its accelerating revenue growth.

"Guidewire arguably delivered the best financial results over the past three years, seeing organic ARR [annual recurring revenue] growth accelerate from low-teens, to midteens, then upper-teens (sustainably), and hitting 20%," Wong wrote.

Finally, e-commerce platform Shopify is an outlier in the group in that it hasn't really been an AI loser at all -- the stock is up 48% over the past year. Analysts have lauded Shopify's integration of the technology which includes tools that enable AI agents to search for and gather product data, add items from multiple Shopify stores to a single cart, and check shoppers out via the AI interface.

Still Wong reckons there's more to come for the stock, calling it a "category winner" best positioned for AI across both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business markets.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 02, 2026 10:48 ET (15:48 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.