Lip Service vs. Reality: 27 SaaS Companies Have Already Listed AI Agents as Competitive Risk in SEC Filings This Year

According to CryptoWorld, data monitored by 1M AI News shows that this year, 27 software companies have listed AI agents as a competitive risk factor in their securities filings, compared to only 7 in the same period last year. However, executives of these companies generally downplay this threat during earnings calls, creating a stark contrast between the cautious language in filings and public statements. The 10-K filing submitted last month by design tool Figma states that agentic AI “may change the way people access and use digital products, thereby reducing reliance on traditional software applications.” On the same day, during the earnings call, CEO Dylan Field said, “Humans will continue to use software, and agents will too,” and added, “If you’re willing to entrust critical tasks to agents to perform without supervision, you’re very brave.” Currently, Figma’s stock price is below its IPO price from last year. Customer relationship management platform HubSpot’s annual report in February directly mentioned that customers can build their own CRM tools using AI, even highlighting “vibe coding” (natural language programming) as a potential alternative. The company’s stock has fallen nearly half over the past six months. Enterprise HR platform Workday’s early March 10-K report acknowledged that the company may face challenges in “maintaining market differentiation,” and warned that its newly launched Flex Credits (a usage-based billing model for agents) “may encounter customer resistance.” Former CEO Carl Eschenbach, who said in January that “AI is a tailwind for us, definitely not a headwind,” stepped down last month. Adobe’s January annual report also mentioned facing “increasing competition from companies offering generative and agentic AI solutions,” but outgoing CEO Shantanu Narayen still claimed last week that the company’s products are “uniquely designed” to meet enterprise needs in the AI agent era. Adobe’s stock has already fallen 28% this year. This wave of panic has been dubbed the “SaaSpocalypse” by investors. After Anthropic released the new Claude agent tool in February, the software sector’s market capitalization evaporated by approximately $850 billion within days. Since 2005, the SEC has required publicly traded companies to disclose significant risk factors in their filings, a mechanism that objectively allows management to make more optimistic predictions publicly, while filings serve as a risk disclosure obligation.