Dan Ives is one of the most closely followed personalities on Wall Street. Ives leads global technology research for Wedbush Securities, and can often be found touting bullish narratives and forecasts about artificial intelligence (AI) on financial media outlets such as CNBC or Bloomberg.
In late December, Ives took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to highlight his top 10 AI picks for 2025. Below, I'm going to explore three of his software picks and assess if now looks like a good opportunity to scoop up shares.
1. Palantir Technologies
It should come as no surprise that Palantir Technologies (PLTR -2.52%) earned a position on Ives' list of top ideas. The primary tailwind fueling Palantir boils down to one thing: the company's newest software suite, dubbed the Palantir Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). Since launching in April 2023, AIP has helped Palantir make a splash in the private sector and remain a competitive option alongside many other data analytics tools flooding the software market.
Moreover, AIP has also helped Palantir form a number of strategic alliances with big tech and consulting firms including Oracle, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Amazon, and Booz Allen Hamilton. Many of these partnerships are focused specifically on integrating AIP across cloud infrastructures within the Department of Defense (DOD) and other military-related agencies. In turn, Palantir has unlocked new ways to accelerate its historically lumpy government business.
While I am personally bullish on Palantir's long-term potential, I must also admit that the stock has gotten overwhelmingly expensive. Last year, Palantir was the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 index (^GSPC 0.16%) after the company's shares soared 340%.
Although I think 2025 should be another terrific year for Palantir, I'd caution investors against buying into the stock during a pronounced period of momentum.
2. Salesforce
The next company I'll be exploring is Salesforce (CRM 0.61%). While Salesforce is primarily known for its sales and marketing tools, the company also owns and operates several other platforms that span across areas such as data analytics and workplace productivity.
Over the last couple of years, large language models (LLMs) and machine learning have garnered a lot of the chatter surrounding AI. However, during the company's latest earnings call, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made it clear that the company's next growth wave revolves around agentic AI.
Agentic AI will utilize generative AI protocols such as LLMs and machine learning applications, but will not require a human to operate as these digital agents become "smarter" and more independent over time. Salesforce's agentic AI platform is aptly called Agentforce, and right now it's already being used by some of the world's largest enterprises including IBM, FedEx, and Accenture.
At the moment, Microsoft's CoPilot is the most mainstream agentic AI offering on the market. Given the limited competition and increasing spending on AI infrastructure, I'm bullish on Salesforce's ability to acquire incremental market share in the agentic AI space and think the company has robust prospects ahead.
Image source: Getty Images.
3. Snowflake
Data infrastructure company Snowflake (SNOW 1.38%) went public around the same time as Palantir back in 2020. Yet unlike Palantir, investors cheered on Snowflake's public debut in historic fashion. Moreover, when AI began to emerge as the next megatrend back in late 2022, it was natural to think that Snowflake would be an obvious beneficiary.
However, reality clashed with lofty expectations, and eventually investors began to question if the narrative surrounding Snowflake was rooted in hype. Ultimately, poor investor sentiment around Snowflake resulted in Frank Slootman resigning as the CEO, leaving the company with very little to say about its AI chops and if the technology would ever become a core focus in the business.
While the last year has been a tough one for Snowflake, the company is gradually beginning to turn things around. Product revenue is growing 29% year over year, and the company boasts an astounding net revenue retention (NRR) rate of 127% -- indicating that customers are not only remaining on the Snowflake platform, but also spending more.
According to the company's CFO Mike Scarpelli, Snowflake's core AI platform, Cortex, is "still very much in the early innings." The way I interpret Snowflake's current situation is that the company has been able to improve key performance indicators without AI being a major contributor yet. To me, this implies that as AI becomes more of a selling point for Snowflake, the company's financial profile should continue to strengthen.
Although Snowflake is not yet out of the woods, I am cautiously optimistic about an investment in the stock.
